From Jeremy Kibler

Just when you thought the familiar coming-of-age sub-genre was all dried-up and had zero new avenues to take, here comes My Old Ass. The premise itself is very high-concept in which a drug trip on South African mushroom tea leads to a Big or 13 Going on 30 situation. What may sound like just a throwaway lark of a comedy is more heartfelt and emotionally tender than that, running deeper with surprising humanity and wisdom.

This marks actress Megan Park’s second writing-directing feature following 2022’s The Fallout, which starred Jenna Ortega and Maddie Ziegler as two teenage girls navigating the aftermath of surviving a high school shooting. It handled heavy material with a sensitivity and honesty, and that same approach gets carried over into Park’s sophomore effort.

Newcomer Maisy Stella is a charismatic, fresh-faced find as Elliott, a queer 18-year-old girl who’s ready to leave her family’s cranberry farm and go to college in Toronto. Rather than spend her birthday with her parents and two brothers, she camps out with her two best girlfriends for the night and get high on mushroom tea. It’s there that Elliott comes face to face with her 39-year-old self (played in only a few scenes by Aubrey Plaza). Of course, younger Elliott wants to know what her life will turn out to be, and all Older Elliott asks is that she stay away from a boy named Chad. Sure enough, she meets a boy named Chad (Percy Hynes White), a summer worker on the farm whom she can’t talking stop seeing, even though Elliott is already hooking up with a female barista.

If we all knew what we know now, the relatable desire to tell your younger self that everything will get better or that time is hard to get back is made a reality in My Old Ass. Without making a legitimate body-swap or time-travel movie, director Megan Park (who also wrote the script) doesn’t attempt to explain the magical mechanics behind this younger-meets-older-self premise, and that’s for the better. That both versions of Elliott can text each other is also better off left unexplained; it’s just simply how it goes. The tone Park finds is pitch-perfect, grounded yet funny in a small, natural, and observant way, and wistful and sentimental but not sickly sweet.

Both actresses playing Elliott don’t look alike much at all, but the film gets around that, having fun with a joke about not wearing a retainer. Aubrey Plaza, while still showing glimmers of her trademark deadpan skills, brings a lighter touch to Elliott in order to match her younger counterpart’s spirited, smartass demeanor and find a cohesiveness. Alongside the enormously likable and rambunctious Maisy Stella are Kerrice Brooks and Maddie Ziegler, rounding out Elliott’s duo of best friends Ro and Ruthie. Their interactions feel solid, charming, and true, and a hallucinatory dance sequence to Justin Bieber’s *checks notes* “One Less Lonely Girl” is a delight. Maria Dizzia also can’t help but be wonderful and beautifully deliver a handful of poignant scenes as Elliott’s mother Kathy. 

My Old Ass may not impart any new life lessons that an adult hasn’t heard or learned for themselves, but as execution makes all the difference with any derivative-sounding film, this feels honest, wise, and surprisingly patient. The film also doesn’t make the mistake of just being about loving the boy that could get away; Elliott’s attempts to actually get to know and spend more time with her two distinctly different brothers, aspiring cranberry farmer Max (Seth Isaac Johnson) and Saoirse Ronan-loving Spencer (Carter Trozzolo), are sincere and sweet.

Never cornball or mawkish, My Old Ass is a lovely breath of fresh air that should meet in the middle for both Millennials and Generation Z. It’s that rare movie that you wouldn’t mind if it kept its ass going.

Rating: 4.5/5

My Old Ass is currently playing in theaters.

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