Linda wakes up one morning to her ringing phone. Her friend, Gale wants to know how her party went last night. To her dismay, Linda tells her that no one showed up, "not a one." Thus begins Denise Calls Up, the story of seven friends living in New York City who no longer find it necessary to actually meet face to face due to the new age of the internet and wireless phones. But Gale is less upset about the absolute absenteeism, than about the fact that her friend Barbara never got to meet Jerry. Gale has been trying to set them up. So she calls Barbara, chastising her for not making it to Linda's and goading her into meeting Jerry. After protesting that she's just been too busy, Barbara eventually acquiesces. Meanwhile, Denise, who has gotten pregnant by an anonymous sperm insemination, locates the donor, Martin, and decides to call him. And so it goes, as the characters, via phone and fax, duck and miss each other time after time, using one excuse after the other to avoid meetings, births, and even a funeral until, finally, Frank, determined to finally get everyone together, plans a New Year's Eve party. All swear that they will be there.
Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote: "Mr. Salwen's storytelling gambit may sound like a stunt, but he does a remarkably agile job of sustaining it throughout a sunny 80-minute comedy."[7]The Washington Post was very positive, with Desson Thomson calling it "an amusing, soundbite-era satire about the dehumanizing link-up between deep human impulses (specifically love) and telephone/computer technology."[8] He added, "What's funniest about the movie is the way information ricochets from person to person, through a combination of speed-dialing, conference calling and call waiting."[8]Hal Hinson, also of The Post, called it a "stunning satire of yuppie life in Manhattan" and concluded "Salwen has captured and properly identified a very particular modern American species. His emergence as a filmmaker is a true event."[9]
Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a grade of C, but said he enjoyed the characters of Jerry and Barbara.[10] In the San Francisco Examiner, Barbara Shulgasser said, "As witty as this film is, Salwen can't get around the fact that a movie about people who don't meet saddles a director with a lot of scenes focusing on one person talking to no one but a piece of machinery."[11]Roger Ebert said the film’s idea was too slight for a full-length feature.[12] In Variety, Emanuel Levy wrote, "At times, 'Denise Calls Up' feels like an overextended, one-joke movie, but the joke’s a good one."[13]
