Gen Z coming of age/rom-com/time-travelling fantasy My Old Ass has a lot going on.
The Plot
Teenager Elliott is preparing to head off to college, she lives in a beautiful rural area of Canada on her family’s cranberry farm and is desperate to head off to the city. She has a wild mushroom-fuelled adventure with her friends to celebrate her 18th birthday and in the drug-altered state is approached by Older Elliott, her, from the future, aged 39. Their communication continues once the drugs wear off with Older Elliott eager to impart wisdom and advice to her younger self.
In Front Of The Camera
The movie stars Maisey Stella as Elliott and would perhaps be known as a star of the tv show Nashville and has few other credits to her name.
The other star is Aubrey Plaza – Older Elliott. Plaza has been a cult tv and film star for a long time and is constantly breaking into bigger and bigger roles. Her breakout role came as deranged and perennially eye-rolling intern April Ludgate in Parks and Recreation but has starred in films like Emily The Criminal, Ingrid Goes West, Black Bear and many more. Plaza is known for her odd performances often with dark humour and weird premises. In reality, Maisey Stella plays the only main character, with everyone else, including her older self, revolving around her.
Behind The Camera
The film is written and directed by Megan Park, an actor and filmmaker. Park has appeared in films like Charlie Barlett and directed a number of music videos and short films and then made the critically acclaimed Fallout, a film about a high school student who survived a school shooting, with the film focussing mainly on her life after that, the “fallout” of that life-changing incident.
Does It Work?
My Old Ass is a funny and emotional coming-of-age story. It constantly has beautiful shots of the stunning landscape in which the film is set. Maisey Stella is fantastic, managing to be endearing and annoying at the same time. The film however ultimately felt disappointing. The premise of the visitation of your older self and how that would impact you and the advice they could give you to make things better is interesting but the film does not actually spend much time on this idea. Older Elliott provides some useful if not terribly original advice about spending more time with your family and appreciating them more. Some of their conversations are genuinely engaging, funny and emotional but it does not feel like the idea was fully explored in this film. It could be that Park does not want to explore that idea a great deal, it is a solid film with or without it, but many in the audience will expect it to be a larger part of the story, to do more with this idea of your future self.
Much of the above criticism is about expectation management and it shouldn’t take away from the great parts of the movie. There are tender and kind moments aplenty, the friendship between Elliott and her two friends, Ro and Ruthie, is a highlight. As Elliott does become closer to her family we see the value this brings, the improvement to all of their lives. There are a couple of devastating scenes that are handled perfectly by all involved. While Plaza and Stella are fantastic in these scenes Percy Hynes White as a newcomer to the area, Chad is also very good and his brief interaction with one character is especially poignant.
My Old Ass goes through the usual travails of coming-of-age stories, love, attraction, planning your future, fear of that future, friendship, looming adulthood and more and while it may not be hugely original takes on these things coming-of-age films rarely do and are there to give each new generation their own coming-of-age films and not have to rely on ones made forty years previously where no one has a mobile phone.
My Old Ass is a good film and perhaps for someone who the coming-of-age story would be more applicable would enjoy it more. Megan Park and Maisey Stella are definitely people to look out for in the future.
(3 / 5)
