Poetic License

Friday, September 12: This film will be presented with open captions, but please note, ASL interpretation will not be available for the live onstage elements of the screening.

Poetic License, the directorial debut of actor Maude Apatow, is a gentle and delightful comedy about college life, focusing on three seemingly mismatched people who find unlikely companionship at a pivotal point in their lives.

Ari (Cooper Hoffman) and Sam (Andrew Barth Feldman) are longtime friends, despite being very, very different. Ari is goofy and self-centred and has to get the last word on everything. The far more conservative, buttoned-down Sam is pursuing a career in finance, in hopes of gaining financial security and mollifying his family.

Enter married mother Liz (Leslie Mann), who’s auditing the boys’ poetry class. Having just moved to this small college town at the insistence of her husband (Cliff Smith, a.k.a. Method Man), she’s utterly discombobulated, feeling increasingly distanced from her daughter (Nico Parker), who’s desperate to return to big-city life. The trio’s friendship is soon imperiled when both boys fall madly for Liz. The ensuing complications cause unexpected and hilarious friction between Ari and Sam — and in Liz’s family.

It's a long-accepted truism that high school may be the last place where people from different classes engage regularly. Here, college may be the last place where age differences are easily ignored. As Ari, Sam, and Liz’s relationship gets more and more complicated, all three of them forget exactly where they are in their lives. (Liz is reconnecting with her own youthful dreams.)

Deeply affectionate, and laugh-out-loud funny Poetic License overflows with compassion, boasting artful writing, skilful direction, and engaging performances. It’s the perfect fall movie — when optimism and excitement rule and finals are months and months away.

ROBYN CITIZEN