A funny, heartfelt, and ‘shroom tripping story about growing up, My Old Ass sees Aubrey Plaza and Maisy Stella face-off in a battle of who knows best.
My Old Ass Review
What would you tell your younger self if they conjured you out of your reality thanks to some questionable mushrooms? That's the premise for Megan Park's sophomore film My Old Ass. As weirdly specific and convoluted as that comes across, the story, also written by Park, is fairly straight-forward, never taking time to explain how any of the time-traveling actually works or why the two versions of Elliot can communicate through texts and phone calls. Instead it spends its tight runtime telling a coming-of-age dramedy that hits all the expected beats– naïveté of youth clashes with the wisdom of someone older, impulsivity gives way to thoughtful actions, emotions run the gamut, and life lessons are sprinkled throughout. It may walk the path of its genre but My Old Ass is anything but lifeless or derivative. It's funny, tender, and sneakily profound with an earnest script, Plaza's wit, and an energetic performance by Stella.
Elliot (Stella) is an 18-year-old daughter of a second-generation cranberry farmer who is anxious to leave Muskoka, Ontario and move to Toronto for college. She's over the small-town, lakeside life so much so she even bails on having cake with her family in favor of tripping off shrooms in the forest with her besties Ro (Kerrice Brooks) and Ruthie (Maddie Ziegler). Her friends start to hallucinate pretty quickly while Elliot sits on a log annoyed she isn't feeling anything. Just as she begins to give up on tripping, she finds Plaza sitting next to her by the campfire and learns that this stranger is in fact her future 39 year-old self. This “very young adult” advises young Elliot to spend time with her family and to avoid anyone named Chad. As you may have guessed, Elliot soon meets a boy named Chad (Percy Hynes White) who just so happens to be working on the family farm for the summer. Despite thinking she was only into women, Elliot finds herself unmistakably drawn to Chad.
My Old Ass starts off solid by introducing us to Elliot and her friends (who unfortunately don't get enough time to really shine) but it doesn't take long before Plaza comes onto the scene and the humor really takes off. Teenage Elliot is curious to know everything about herself and the future. Like any teen she thinks her future self has it all figured out by 39. For those of us in our thirties and beyond we're immediately thinking who's going to tell her. Older Elliot smirks and sets her straight. We're 39, we're not married, we don't have that dream job, but hey we are a PHD student. Younger Elliot is crushed by this revelation but shrugs it all off as a bad trip. When she realizes her “Old Ass” was really there, she begins to take to heart the little nuggets of wisdom she left behind.
Instead of coming across heavy handed with its sage advice, Park's script takes a sincere and dare I say normal approach to Elliot trying to heed the warnings from her future self. “The only thing you can’t get back is time,” is a pretty standard statement that any one of us would likely tell our teenage selves. I mean I tell my children this now when they seem like they want to rush ahead to the next “big thing.” So it's not shocking Older Elliot mentioned it and the way Younger Elliot went about trying to listen to it seemed natural. She goes golfing with her brother Max (Seth Isaac Johnson), much to his surprise, tries to relate to preteen Spencer (Carter Trozzolo) who is infatuated with Saoirse Ronan, and sits down with her mother (Maria Dizzia) in an attempt to reconnect before she leaves. The story never tries too hard to make the point about time and in a refreshing turn of events, the insistence to spend time with everyone, specifically mom, is not because she is dead in the future. Slight spoiler I know but I was happy to have that trope left out.
Her dad (Al Goulem) and her pre-Chad barista-fling Chelsea (Alexandra River) are barely given a cursory glance. The former says very little and Elliot does not go out of her way to spend any significant time with him. He could've been left out of the story altogether in my opinion. Chelsea gets more screen time but is never actually broken up with or really spoken to beyond some awkward flirting that leads to other things. Something else that also could've been cut shorter with zero effect to the overall plot.
Stella, previously seen with her sister, Lennon Stella, playing singing siblings on the series Nashville, takes the lead and gives an impressive performance as Elliot walking the line between obnoxious, naive teen and a protagonist you want to root for. She is naturally funny, grounded, and full-hearted. Her chemistry with Hynes White (from Netflix's Wednesday) is sweet and their push-pull dynamic works well. He's just so goofy and affable it's not hard to see why she couldn't pull herself away from him despite Older Elliot's warnings. The warning about Chad adds in some mystery to the story as we try to figure out what is so wrong with this guy? To answer it or to tell you the notable trope associated with it would spoil the big reveal but you'll know it when you see it.
Plaza is the big name here but steps into a supporting role. Her chemistry with Stella is strong, the two play well off each other trading barbs and side-eye. Plaza's well-known dry humor is on full display until it's time to subtly shift away from the comedy for more serious moments. There is a point when she reappears after a small absence and at first it seems like another great comedy sequence is about to unfold. But it soon becomes one that is far more serious and heartbreaking. Plaza effortlessly switches off her normal sardonic tone for one that is quietly heartbreaking. Tissues may be needed at this point.
Verdict
My Old Ass is a funny as hell coming-of-age story that sneaks in some solid life lessons and emotional moments that will have you wondering not only what you would say to younger self but what would they say to you? I was impressed by Park's tender and sentimental approach to broaching how we say goodbye to the life we've known since we were born to step out into the unknown. Park doesn't aim to beat anyone down on screen or in the audience with regret or guilt about how their lives turned out. Rather she gently encourages us all to savor the moment we are in and be open to experiencing all that life has to offer. The core audience might be teens and early twenty-somethings but that is something we all need to hear, very young adults like myself included. This is a great film to watch with your besties so grab them and maybe some tissues, just in case.
My Old Ass will release in theaters September 13. It is rated R for language throughout, drug use and sexual material with a runtime of 88 minutes.
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