#TIFF25: “POETIC LICENSE” REVIEW

By Mr. Will Wong

Maude Apatow (Euphoria) is definitely going places and she delivers a very polished and accomplished directorial debut in POETIC LICENSE.

This quirky Comedy centers on Liz (Leslie Mann, Apatow‘s actual mother) who relocates with her family as her husband (Method Man) takes on a new assignment at a college. She is an Auditor, and sits-in on a Poetry class at the college, but before she knows it, she finds herself unwittingly caught in an emotional “love” (or not) triangle between two best friends, Sam (Andrew Barth Feldman) and Ari (Cooper Hoffman). All the while she is navigating her daughter Dora (Nico Parker) coming-of-age and about to head off to college, beginning to distance herself about from Liz. She is confused and trying to understand her place, feeling like a complete outsider at home and in her new surroundings.

POETIC LICENSE is quirky, yet so smartly-written and well-acted and we go through a real journey among these lost souls who are each at their own respective crossroads and intersecting in this story. Our three leads are terrific, but the real scenestealer is Euphoria alumni Martha Kelly with her deadpan delivery in the classroom as Poetry Professor Greta – worth the price of the ticket itself.

Kidding aside, it is refreshing to see interesting, well-rounded characters on the big screen here. Things are looking promising for Apatow and we are looking forward to more.

POETIC LICENSE screens at TIFF ’25:

Saturday, September 6
Royal Alexandra Theatre
Premium
Closed captions (CC),
Audio description (AD)
5:15 pm

Sunday, September 7
Scotiabank Theatre Toronto
Closed captions (CC),
Audio description (AD)
9:45 pm

Friday, September 12
VISA Screening Room at the Princess of Wales Theatre
Audio description (AD),
Open captions (OC)
9:30 pm

Sunday, September 14
Scotiabank Theatre Toronto
Closed captions (CC),
Audio description (AD)
9:30 pm

#TIFF25: DAY TWO SIGHTINGS – ETHAN HAWKE, RENATE REINSVE, ELLE FANNING, SYDNEY SWEENEY, KATY O’BRIAN, SHAILENE WOODLEY, EMILIA JONES, MAUDE APATOW, MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY, JAMIE LEE CURTIS + MORE

Our tiff50 adventures continue with a very successful Day Two that included sightings with:

•ethan hawke for blue moon and the lowdown
•corey hawkins and anna diop at tiff for the man in my basement
•stellan slarsgård, renate reinsve, and elle fanning at tiff for sentimental value
•shailene woodley and ben fodter at tiff for motor city
•samara weaving and kyle gallner at tiff for carolina caroline
•nick robinson and emilia jones at tiff for charlie harper
•emilia jones at tiff for charlie harper
•sydney sweeney, christy martin, and katy o’brian at tiff for christy
•maude apatow at tiff for poetic license
•cillian murphy at tiff for steve
•jamie lee curtis, matthew and levi mcconaughey at tiff for the lost bus (chats from the red carpet coming soon)

Highlights below:

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Live from the Red Carpet for THE LOST BUS!

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Cannot wait to see who we see Day Three! Tomorrow should be the most epic one yet!

(Photo/video credit: Mr. Will Wong)

#FIRSTLOOK: NEW TRAILER FOR “THE KING OF STATEN ISLAND”

Judd Apatow‘s The King of Staten Island, based on the life of Pete Davidson now will get an on-demand release. Believe me, we were ready to pay to see this in theatres!  See the Trailer.

Synopsis:

Scott (Davidson) has been a case of arrested development ever since his firefighter father died when he was seven. He’s now reached his mid-20s having achieved little, chasing a dream of becoming a tattoo artist that seems far out of reach. As his ambitious younger sister (Maude Apatow, HBO’s Euphoria) heads off to college, Scott is still living with his exhausted ER nurse mother (Oscar® winner Marisa Tomei) and spends his days smoking weed, hanging with the guys—Oscar (Ricky Velez, Master of None), Igor (Moises Arias, Five Feet Apart) and Richie (Lou Wilson, TV’s The Guest Book)—and secretly hooking up with his childhood friend Kelsey (Bel Powley, Apple TV+’s The Morning Show).

But when his mother starts dating a loudmouth firefighter named Ray (Bill Burr, Netflix’s F Is for Family), it sets off a chain of events that will force Scott to grapple with his grief and take his first tentative steps toward moving forward in life.

The film also stars Steve Buscemi as Papa, a veteran firefighter who takes Scott under his wing, and Pamela Adlon (FX’s Better Things) as Ray’s ex-wife, Gina.

 

See the Trailer:

 

Universal Pictures Canada release THE KING OF STATEN ISLAND on-demand Friday, June 12, 2020.

 

(Photo/video credit: Universal Pictures Canada)

#FIRSTLOOK: NEW STILLS FROM RYAN MURPHY’S “HOLLYWOOD”

This looks amazing! Check-out these just-released stills from Ryan Murphy‘s HOLLYWOOD, coming soon to Netflix.

Synopsis:
A new limited series from Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, HOLLYWOOD follows a group of aspiring actors and filmmakers in post-World War II Hollywood as they try to make it in Tinseltown — no matter the cost. Each character offers a unique glimpse behind the gilded curtain of Hollywood’s Golden Age, spotlighting the unfair systems and biases across race, gender and sexuality that continue to this day. Provocative and incisive, HOLLYWOOD exposes and examines decades-old power dynamics, and what the entertainment landscape might look like if they had been dismantled. HOLLYWOOD stars David Corenswet as Jack, Darren Criss as Raymond, Jeremy Pope as Archie, Laura Harrier as Camille, Samara Weaving as Claire, Dylan McDermott as Ernie, Holland Taylor as Ellen Kincaid, Patti LuPone as Avis, Jim Parsons as Henry Willson, Jake Picking as Rock Hudson, Joe Mantello as Dick, and Maude Apatow as Henrietta.

 

See new Stills:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HOLLYWOOD streams on Netflix Friday, May 1, 2020.

 

(Photo credit: Netflix)