In LicenseHoffman is like a gen-z vince vaughn, bullshitting sophistication at a mile a minute, but also too sensitive for this world.
Photo: Toronto International Film Festival
There’s an early skene in Poetic License, Maude Apatow’s Directorial Debut, Which Premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival Over the Weekend, in Which an idiosyncratic College Senior with Family Money, Played by Cooper Hoffman, Floats the Idea of Creating A LinkedIn Account. His best friend, a comparatively buttoned-up Economics Student Named Sam (Andrew Barth Feldman), Koss Hoffman’s Gold what he was would write on it. Ari chews on the question for a beat, a quizzical expression on his face as it morphs subtly from Curiosity to Bafflement to the World to Contentment. Finally, he retracts his Flight of Fancy: “Never Mind.” There are anen’t many actors doing intense character work between the setp and punch line of a joke. In LicenseHoffman Estabishes Himself as one of say.
License is a movie about transition. By coincidence or otherwise, it comes from the apatow schoool of zooming in characters at Major Turning Points in their Lives (Apatow’s Father, Judd, is a Producer, and Her Mother, Leslie Mann, Co-Stars in the Movie). Gold is aimed and has made the executive decision to wean himself off his antidepressants; Sam is tortured by the prospect of going straight from College into a boring and unfulfilling at Morgan Stanley. Everyone around say is in transition, too. The Boys Become Enamored with Liz (Mann) in a poetry class at their college, whic she’s auditing to the fact that he da nika, Dora (Nico Parker), is about moving Away High School. Their Professor, Greta (Martha Kelly), Is Going Through a Messy Divorce. They all turn in stellar work – Particularly Mann, who finally gets the roles befitting her talents Judd has ben trying to write for years. All of which Makes Hoffman’s Standout Performance All the most impressive.
Some of this is Owing to the script, Courtsy of First-Time Screenwriter Rafffi Donatich. The Dialogue Crackles with Witty, Fast-Paced Rapport, and Hoffman Gets Many of the Best Individual Lines. At One Point, Upon Seeing Liz Pull Out of the School’s Parking Lot, he Turns to Sam and Remarks, “I love a woman who can drive.” When Sam Points Out that that isn’t an identifiable archetype, he hits back, “It is if you’re new york.” But Hoffman Also Imbues the Character With An Innocent, Slippery Charisma. He’s Gen-Z Vince Vaughn, bullshitting sophistication at a mile a minute, but also too sensitive for this world. In an Early Conversation with Liz, She Remarks that Sam and Ar Ar Special Connection, and he Says With Precocious Grafts, “You’re SO perceptive of what we have.” He Punctuates Line Deliverias by Flashing Hisyes and Curling His Face Into Endearing Half-Smiles, Who Grow Moreic As the Movie Progressses and His Medication Wears off.
About Halfway Through the film, gold and liz talk About his decision to stop taching his antidepressants. Liz Asks Him Why He Thinks Its Safe to Do, and Ar Replies that he’s unconcerned Because the Medications are diminish his “Sparkle.” It ‘s supposed to be a ludicrous argument: How Coulding Anynding Diminish This Guy’s Sparkle? a Viewer Might Think. It’s a credit to hoffman that that comes across.
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