My Old Ass is a pretty funny title. I’ve had some pretty hilarious responses to it when I tell people about this film written and directed by Megan Park and starring Maisy Stella and Aubrey Plaza. In this film, Stella plays Elliott, a girl preparing to go to college. She plans to hang out with her friends and hook up with the prettiest girl in town, who works in a local restaurant. While camping in the woods overnight, Elliott and her friends Ruthie (Maddie Ziegler) and Ro (Kerrice Brooks) decide to do some shrooms and trip balls. While the other two are out there faded, Elliott doesn’t feel anything until a woman walks up and sits down and starts talking to her. She says she’s her 39-year-old self from the future. Elliott scoffs at the idea until Older Elliott, played by Plaza, tells her things she would only know by experiencing it. From there, Elliott asks her older self some stuff and Old Elliott gives her some advice and what she regretted about this summer. She also warns her about a boy and then her phone number so they can text each other. Now, right here, nothing about how Elliott meets Elliott other than the younger one is so high she was able to visit, and they don’t even care about how they can text between time; it just is. This movie has a legitimate science fiction setup with no regard for or caring about it in any sense.
Elliott goes to sleep, takes her older self’s words to heart, and spends time with her family instead of taking them for granted. She works with her father on their cranberry farm, giving us big ocean spray commercial vibes. She spends time with her younger brothers as they don’t feel she likes them, and she gets to see how different they are. One thing Older Elliott is adamant about is staying away from a boy named Chad (Percy Hynes White), which Elliott tries, but with him working for her father over the summer, that becomes quite difficult. Here, this is where the film gets into the teen romance bag, but it never loses its really kooky coming-of-age setup. While most of Elliott’s friends don’t get to do much or have much character in the story, her family does get some really good parts to help ground her super teen-like freedom of flightiness. Seth Isaac Johnson as Max has some funny little barbs that are her expensive as she’s the cool older sister and he’s the dull golf-loving middle child. Their back and forth felt like sitcom siblings in a good way. Maria Dizzia and Al Goulem play the parents, Kathy and Tom, who clearly are used to dealing with their free-spirited daughter. They come off as loving but exhausted and sad, as their daughter seems never to have time for them or the family, and she just expects things to stay the same.
Things never stay the same, and it’s a vital part of growing up and learning that lesson. Some learn it early, but some learn it later, and My Old Ass does well by making that the core of this different coming-of-age teen romance movie. It might not need to be seen in the movie theater, but it will be entertaining and worth spending time on.
Score: C+
