TIFF 2025: Poetic License Review

This will be one of many reviews during this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here.

The feature directorial debut of Maude Apatow, daughter of acclaimed comedy director and producer Judd Apatow, Poetic License stars Leslie Mann (also her mother) as Liz, a woman whose daughter Dora (Nico Parker) is about to graduate from high school and head off to college. Very attached to her child, this proved to be a real transitional period for Liz, as Dora simply sought for more independence as she set out on her own and begin a life in the real world. Taking on a job as an auditor for a college poetry class, Liz becomes friends with Ari (Hoffman) and Sam (Feldman), two college seniors who help her rekindle her sense of youth. However, as their relationship developed over time, things would become complicated as the two boys start to have feelings for her.

All things considered, there are so many ways that Poetic License could have gone wrong. For one, it is framed in a very unique way. Focusing on Mann’s Liz and her arc certainly makes for an fascinating change of pace. As a result, positioning the film as a coming-of-age story about a fifty-year-old woman changes the overall dynamic. Meanwhile, it is easy to watch coming-of-age films tackling such trivial issues, because when one is in their late teens to early twenties, what may seem drastic in the moment tend to not amount to much at the end of the day. In this case, that juxtaposition plays out on screen as we never truly figure out entirely how we belong, we just learn better ways to adapt to the world around us.

Above all else, comedy is subjective and here, the film boasts a script that is not only razor sharp, but also features humor that hits much more than misses. Its characters are so well defined, and the possibility of seeing them again would be great as Hoffman and Feldman have such great chemistry as Ari and Sam. Hoffman, especially, is a standout thanks to his many talents and unparalleled comedic timing as this is only the beginning as far as where his career can ultimately go in the future.

Possessing a melancholy sense of nostalgia strung throughout, the tone never undermines its comedic side. A poignant study about the way we discover meaning and how people have the desire to be seen, every character desperately wants to be heard, and for whatever reason feel like they can’t. Themes that make the film feel so identifiable and universal to general audiences, it is one that is sure to resonate with countless audiences and, over time, is destined to become the next new comfort classic in the vein of other classics like Clueless or 10 Things I Hate About You.

When it comes to nepotism, there are easy pitfalls, like when someone gets an easy pass to make their own films, they at times doesn’t feel earned. With this film, Maude Apatow had to prove herself but to her credit, she does so with ease. In the end, Poetic License is sure to be a smash hit, and one that is sure to charm a lot of audience, essentially the best John Hughes film John Hughes never made.

still courtesy of TIFF

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Brett Schutt

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