Eighteen-year-old Elliott (Maisy Stella) might be instantly recognizable to anyone who鈥檚 ever been a teenager from a small town. She鈥檚 just weeks away from leaving behind her quiet and all-too-familiar childhood surroundings for the excitement and promise of college in 鈥渢he city鈥� 鈥� Toronto, in this case 鈥� and already has one foot out the door. Spending time with her parents and little brothers takes a back seat, of course, to hanging out with her best friends around the Muskoka Lakes in her dingy old motorboat and finally hooking up with her longtime crush.
What differentiates Megan Park鈥檚 sneakily affecting and quirkily-titled My Old Ass from other last-summer-before-adulthood movies is its high-concept premise of a hallucinogenic trip which proves literally existential. For her birthday, Elliott and friends Ro (Kerrice Brooks) and Ruthie (Maddie Ziegler) camp out in the woods and take mushrooms. Elliott鈥檚 experience conjures up her 39-year-old self, played by the always fascinating Aubrey Plaza.
Younger Elliott has a lot of questions 鈥� plus a couple of harsh critiques 鈥� for Older Elliott. Older Elliott is happy to impart some sage wisdom and advice, to a point. Don鈥檛 take time spent with your family for granted. Wear your retainer. Oh, and also: Avoid anyone named Chad.
Almost immediately Elliott meets a gangly guy around her age named 鈥� what else? 鈥� Chad (Percy Hynes White); he鈥檚 taken a summer job on her parents鈥� cranberry farm. Up to this point, she鈥檚 only ever been romantically interested in women. But she鈥檚 drawn to him anyway, partially because any headstrong teenager would be compelled to rebel against Older Elliott鈥檚 frustratingly vague warning, and also because Chad is effortlessly charming and almost-too-perfect in every way. She tries pushing him away, but the two collide, the experience throwing everything Elliott thought she knew about herself and her sexuality into whack.
There鈥檚 an array of directions a filmmaker could go in with such a prompt, and Park and her well-assembled cast ultimately craft a coming-of-age story that鈥檚 uniquely satisfying and resonant, not unlike Greta Gerwig鈥檚 Lady Bird, with a dash of The Twilight Zone thrown in. It鈥檚 not a psychedelic, woo-woo kind of film, nor does it dabble in CGI-produced special effects conveying magical or otherworldly happenings.
The closest it gets to fantasy is a brief, playful musical number harkening back to Elliott鈥檚 childhood obsession with a certain Canadian pop star. Otherwise, My Old Ass is grounded firmly in a kind of ordinary alternative reality where, for reasons mercifully never explained, a young adult might have a chance to speak directly to their 鈥渕iddle-aged鈥� self. (Note: Calling a 39-year-old 鈥渕iddle-aged,鈥� as younger Elliott does, may seem like a dig 鈥� and it is 鈥� but technically, ) Hollywood鈥檚 bludgeoned the multiverse theme to a pulp, yet here鈥檚 proof a clever and refreshing spin can still be had.
The absence of mystical lore leaves ample space for rich character- and world-building in a tidy 90-minute package. Elliott as portrayed by Stella moves, thinks, and expresses herself like a real Gen-Z teenager might: horny, kind of bratty (prescient, ), and a little self-absorbed, while also being confident, outspoken, and curious about a wider world she has yet to experience. Older Elliott gets less screen time and has the arguably trickier task of emanating wisdom hard-earned from actually experiencing that wider world, while still seeming deeply connected to the optimistic 18-year-old she once was. Plaza pulls it off by tapping into her natural talent for conveying malaise without being boring, and approaching her side of the character with wit and compassion.
Ultimately, the two parts add up to a whole that wonderfully captures dual essences: youth and inexperience, and age and wariness. Park engages with perennial questions of identity and, most profoundly, ponders whether hindsight is truly 20/20, or something less clearly defined. There are facets to be appreciated in each stage of life; the challenge is in recognizing them in real time.
My Old Ass is distributed by Amazon MGM Studios. Amazon supports NPR and pays to distribute some of our content.
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