My Old Ass ★★★½

In life, it is easy to look past what is right in front of you. The everyday and the consistent people in our lives become subconsciously assumed to always be there for us and taken for granted. Too often, we are stuck looking into the past or trying to figure out the future, only rarely living in the moment. It is this phenomenon that writer-director Megan Park builds her film My Old Ass around. Elliott (Maisy Stella) is at an important stage of her life. Soon, she will leave her family farm and head to the University of Toronto. She cannot wait to get out of this rural town. To celebrate her 18th birthday, she and her friends Ro (Kerrice Brooks) and Ruthie (Maddie Ziegler) plan to take mushrooms. Little does Elliott expect that the resultant trip will change her life as through some wrinkle in time, she manages to see an older version of herself (Aubrey Plaza), who comes armed with knowledge of the years to come and some words of wisdom.

My Old Ass wears its heart on its sleeve. Older Elliott encourages her young self to be nicer to their mom (Maria Dizzia), to enjoy their father’s (Alain Goulem) salmon dinners, and to spend time with their brothers Max (Seth Isaac Johnson) and Spencer (Carter Trozzolo). “Life will never be this simple again,” warns the elder Elliott. The message is loud and clear to young Elliott and the audience: do not take those around you for granted, cherish every moment with them, and find chances to spend time with them while you can. All the while, Park layers in reminders about the impermanence of life, even the family farm is not immune to this which Elliott admits to thinking would “always be there.” She is so focused on the future, trying to pry details out of her elder self, and counting down the days until she moves to Toronto that she has lost sight of what is right in front of her. My Old Ass finds considerable pathos in watching her shift by taking time to sit down with mom on the couch or going golfing with Max. Those moments she once never considered doing are now at the forefront of her mind.

Older Elliott further warns her young self to avoid Chad (Percy Hynes White), who she will soon meet as he is working as a helper on Elliot’s family farm for the summer. Though Elliott has long identified as lesbian, she and Chad will embark on a romantic relationship despite the warning. There is a pull between them that she cannot resist and in this, My Old Ass adds a fatalistic element but young Elliott retains a choice. Armed with the knowledge that he is somehow bad for her, she tries to avoid him until finally accepting that, no matter what comes, she wants to be with him. In this, My Old Ass packs an emotional wallop with many conversations hitting on the reality that, at some point, we all do something for a final time. In some cases, we know that it is the last time and in others, it comes and goes without acknowledgment until long after, when its absence is realized. The privilege of the former is the “goodbye”, the ability to have closure with the end not something to be feared, but to be embraced as a hallmark of having experienced it at all. My Old Ass beautifully emphasizes that one cannot be scared to feel or live because of the end, as it would come at the expense of all of the love, people, and experiences that make life worth living.

As in her directorial debut, The Fallout, Megan Park’s writing is consistently impressive. She has a knack for capturing the authentic language of her subjects and how they process, experience, and express emotion. There is an awkwardness and uncertainty that the characters speak with, a discomfort with their own expressions of certain emotions, and a reckless abandon with which they approach life that is believably showcased in My Old Ass’ script and in its performances. The entire cast captures this lived-in quality, particularly Maisy Stella, Aubrey Plaza, and Maria Dizzia. The Fallout proved to be a breakout role for star Jenna Ortega and with any luck, My Old Ass will be the same for Maisy Stella. She is terrific, matching the film’s raw emotion and helping its messaging to never feel cloying or over-the-top. She is so earnest and believable, disappearing into this role and bringing out all of the nuance of her character. After all, this is a young woman who is not only headed off to college and learning to love her family again, but is confronting issues of her own sexuality. It is a turbulent time, one that Stella plays with grace and the requisite confusion. Plaza’s usual deadpan comedic style is well utilized, while she gets the chance to demonstrate her dramatic skill as well, never better than in her final scene where she has a silent hug that speaks multitudes. A conversation between Elliott and her mom will especially impact parents who are coping with their children heading off to college for the first time with Maria Dizzia’s delivery and Park’s writing beautifully summarizing the emotional balance of pride and loss at such an emotionally complex moment.

As with many great films, My Old Ass has the ability to touch one’s soul. It sneaks up on you a little bit, but this is a film with great heart that remarkably never feels cloying or manipulative. It is consistently funny, frequently moving, and romantic. It directly references Greta Gerwig‘s Little Women adaptation, while walking in the footsteps of many coming of age and romance films to good effect. It does not need to rewrite these tropes to be powerful, instead it finds that power in relatability, authenticity, its impressive cast and strong writing, and in celebrating the beauty of the present moment.