There is a certain type of fear that creeps over you when you see that a new film Is the director’s debut for not only one actor, but also Scion from another filmmaker. It’s not that talent cannot run in the family, but we have been burned too many times before. Not all turns out to be a Sofia Coppola.
As such, it is a relief to say that the director’s debut by Maude Apatow – the “Euphoria” star who got off her start as an older child in his father Judd’s films – is absolutely delightful. “Poetic license“Which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, has all the petitions of a sleeping hit as well as a new classic class.
Keeping it in the family is an Apatow tradition, and Maude has followed in her father’s footsteps that gives her mom, Leslie Mann, an excellent role that makes “knocked up” star can show off her familiar comic properties and reach new emotional depths. But beyond that, Apatow has surrounded his mother with two of the brightest rising stars in the industry, Andrew Barth Feldman and Cooper Hoffman, who are both balls of bound charisma who jump off each other perfectly here.
Apatow’s first smart feature was to attach to a really good script from Raffi Donatich. Mann plays Liz, a former therapist who just moved to a picturesque college city with his economics professor Make James (Method Man) and her teenage daughter Dora (Nico Parker). With Dora to start a new high school, and James busy with work, Liz is located himself.
One way she tries to stay busy is to review a poetry class where she meets best friends Ari (Hoffman) and Sam (Feldman). They are quickly imprisoned with this charming older woman who is as confused about what to do with her life as they are. All the scenes in the classroom are improved by the presence of the funny deadpan in Martha Kelly as a professor in the middle of a toxic divorce with her ex-wife where the ownership of both an air freezer and a dog is disputed.
Ari is a rich child from New York, who is an impulsive Motormouth desperately after SAM’s affection. In the meantime, Sam is a more shy with a long -lasting girlfriend (Maisy Stella). He spent the summer working for Morgan Stanley – which Ari calls “Tracy Morgan” – and, at least initially, hopes to work there after college and get rich in how Ari is natural.
Feldman and Hoffman immediately give us a sense of the dynamic between these two. They are both inseparable and clearly feel the friction of a long -term friendship as they approach the end of their college years. Hoffman makes Ari all the Zingers and Bluster, and clearly masks an inner tough in the brain, while Feldman has mastered the tight wound nerd. (Although he has a fairly more swagger here than he does in his outbreak of “no hard feelings.”)
You can see the mixture of reverence and horny in faces when they meet Liz. She starts maintaining them partly because they are the only ones who pay attention to her. There is a kind of beautiful forgetfulness for Mann’s turn like Liz. She admits that she was bad at her job with marriage and couple counseling, and it is clear that she really does not seem to read their interest in her as sexual. It’s just the fun she has missed that way.
Mann has a tricky line to go. You may think in this scenario that Liz is a kind of seductive, but that’s not her location. Instead, she is as desperate as the boys who think she is captivating. Mann fills his face with longing: Liz just wants friendship, and these children can give it in their completely silly way. She wants to make all the mistakes they currently make them party in Ari’s lavish apartment, drink to abundance and make shrooms. The scene is an acquaintance in these types of stories about regression, but Apatow puts it with a tenderness. Drunk, they all imagine that a future none of them will have.
“Poetic License” struggles a bit when they turn to the other members of Liz’s family. The scenes with Dora’s growing friendship with her new classmates are unfortunate and unnecessary. In the meantime, Liz’s husband never gets much of a personality at all. Despite the fun casting of method, the nature of his absence is defined more than anything.
Apatow’s compositions sometimes have a Shagginess that reveals her experience as a director, but she compensates for it with a mastery of tone. “Poetic License” moves but never falls into Treacly Territory, more comfortable with a salt sweetness. It’s about the morass you can find yourself in any place in your life where you just wish, more than anything, someone who can validate your existence.
Apatow shoots his mother with obvious affection, especially in her scenes opposite Dora. Still, it is dudes who steals the show. Feldman and Hoffman have the magnetic chemistry that you have received from some of the men in Apatow’s fathers. It really runs in the family.
Rating: A-
“Poetic License” premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival 2025. It is currently seeking US distribution.
Want to keep you updated on IndieWire’s movie Reviews And critical thoughts? Subscribe here To our recently launched newsletter, in review by David Ehrlich, where our main film critic and Head Review’s editor rounds off the best new reviews and streaming choices along with some exclusive Musings – all only available for subscribers.
