My Old Ass (2024)
1,398 / 5,584 (75%)
Straight out of Sundance into our local theaters is Megan Park’s sophomore directorial effort (she previously did 2021’s The Fallout starring Jenna Ortega), the coming-of-age story My Old Ass that speaks to our young adulthood and middle-aged selves. It stars feature film newcomer Maisy Stella as Elliott and Aubrey Plaza (Emily the Criminal, 2022) as Elliott’s 39-year-old self. Elliott lives on a small Canadian island known for its cranberry farms. She is a typical too-busy-for-family 18-year-old, preparing for her coming life in Toronto and hooking up with hot girls before she heads out.
As a birthday gift, best friend Ro (Kerrice Brooks) arranges a friend’s campout wherein they all drink shroom tea and go on hallucinogenic trips together. While her two pals comically trip out through the forest, Elliott sits on a log and is visited by her older self. At first, Plaza is essentially a ghost of Christmas Future trying to teach our Ebenezer to not be such a teenage asshole to her family. Stella and Plaza have an excellent chemistry, as the bright youthful and intelligent energy in Stella’s Elliott pairs so well with Plaza’s wry charm. Park fashions full characterizations from the relatively brief interactions our two cornerstones spend with each other.
The middle piece of the film too often falls into montage family comedy-drama territory that lacks any identity other than being necessary fodder for personal revelations. Stella’s charisma and Park’s witty dialogue drive this portion of My Old Ass, keeping it above the fray, while not breaking any new ground. The third act’s revelations, and how Park deftly handles them, are what separates Park’s second film from the coming-of-age morass. She pivots to a direct conversation about what all such films are: older age ruminations and dialogues with our younger celebrations, failures, and pain.
My Old Ass engages in the standard cool indie kid humor, photography, and protagonists, but pushes us to consider the value in our errors, confusions, loves, and losses. A witty, charming, sweet coming-of-middle-age film, it will leave Flickchart groupies asking, “Does this belong in the time travel filter?”
