POETIC LICENSE
(director/writer: Maude Apatow; screenwriter: Raffi Donatich; cinematographer: Jeffrey Waldron; editor: Jay Cassidy; music: Jeff Morrow; cast: Leslie Mann (Liz Cassidy), Jayla Walton (Kyra), Cooper Hoffman (Ari Zimmer), Andrew Barth Feldman (Sam Soloman), Nico Parker (Dora Cassidy), Method Man (James), Martha Kelly (Prof. Greta Ellis), Will Price (Max), Maisy Stella (Grace Wison), Jake Bongiori (Julian); Runtime: 117; MPAA Rating: NR; producers: Will Greenfield, Benjamin Hung; Judd Apatow, Maude Apatow, Josh Church, Thalia Daniel, Olivia Rosenbloom; Jewelbox Pictures; 2025)
“Cute but modest coming-of-age comedy.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Maude Apatow, the daughter of Leslie Mann and Judd Apatow, makes her directorial debut directing her mom in this cute but modest coming-of-age comedy. Maude co-writes it with Raffi Donatich, making her writer debut.
The middle-aged married Liz Cassidy (Leslie Mann), a former therapist, has moved from the big city of Chicago to a sleepy fictional college town, where her husband James (Method Man) is newly appointed to head the economics department. Bored and lonely in the college town and ignored by her busy friend-seeking high school senior daughter Dora (Nico Parker-her mother is Thandiwe Newton and father is the film director Ol Parker), she decides to audit a college poetry workshop taught by the eccentric Greta Ellis (Martha Kelly).
In her class are the college senior friends since their freshmen year when assigned to be dorm roommates, the reserved future Wall St. man Ari Zimmer (Cooper Hoffman) and the loose-living rich boy Sam Soloman (Andrew Barth Feldman), who is dating the wrong girl, Grace (Maisy Stella), but can’t break-up. The opposites are both attracted to Liz and compete with each other to gain her attention. However, she’s not aware of their romantic gestures and thinks only of her family.
The film works best when Liz relates with her daughter and her two admirers. The subplots were distractions. The comedy is mild, the acting is fine (with a good Leslie Mann turn), and Maude does a decent job telling us about life on a contemporary college campus. I would have liked it more if it was more poetical.
It played at the Toronto Film Festival.
REVIEWED ON 10/18/2025 GRADE: B-
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