Movie Review
Aubrey Plaza gives advice to her younger self in My Old Ass
Maisy Stella and Aubrey Plaza in My Old Ass.
Starting with 1976’s Freaky Friday, there is a long tradition of body switch movies where kids trade bodies with their parents. Similarly, films like Big and 13 Going on 30 have a child transform into an older version of themselves. A heretofore untapped version of this kind of magical realism is on display in My Old Ass, a film that blends R-rated comedy with a surprisingly emotional core.
Elliott (Maisy Stella) is an 18-year-old Canadian high school senior on the verge of going to college and leaving her parents, two brothers, and the family’s cranberry farm. On a celebratory camping trip with her two best friends, Ro (Kerrice Brooks) and Ruthie (Maddie Ziegler), Elliott drinks a tea made with hallucinogenic mushrooms. She soon encounters a woman (Aubrey Plaza) who claims to be the 39-year-old version of herself.
The older Elliott doesn’t stay contained within the hallucination, though, and the two are soon texting and talking on the phone. Pleas from the younger Elliott about her future mostly go unanswered, save for one: Elliott the elder says that she should stay away from any guys named Chad, a request that proves difficult when Chad (Percy Hynes White) starts working at the family farm.
Written and directed by Megan Park, the film at first feels like it’s going to go down the road of recent bawdy films led by young women like Blockers, Booksmart, and Yes, God, Yes. And while the film has its fair share of sexual situations and profane dialogue, it has more on its mind than whether or not its characters have sex. Elliott says she’s always considered herself to be gay, but spending time around Chad has her questioning her sexual identity.
The concept of having Elliott interact directly with her older self is a fun one and leads to some great moments, but in an interesting and perhaps bold move, Park steers away from it for a good portion of the film. When the older Elliott stops communicating, the younger version is forced to fend for herself in how she deals with Chad, her family, and more. This leads to a shift in tone that is much more heartfelt than expected.
The switch back-and-forth between the sharply different tones is a tough one to pull off well, but Park makes it seem easy. She has a deft touch at revealing universal truths through small moments, and in so doing, she has made a film that is refreshingly honest and true-to-life. The idea that you can accomplish a feat like that in a film that starts with its main character taking mushrooms and manifesting her older self is astonishing.
Although Nashville fans will know Stella from that show’s six-season run that ended in 2018, this is the 21-year-old’s first film role, and to say that she shows herself to be a star is an understatement. She brings all the human qualities you could want in a coming-of-age story, and never lets the concept overwhelm her performance. Plaza is a known quantity from Parks & Recreation and more, and she offers a great counterbalance of reality to Stella’s youthful optimism.
My Old Ass is in-your-face with its title, but that slight crassness is soon overtaken by the film’s fun concept, its insightful storytelling, and a collection of actors who know how to play things just right. It’s a great comedy, but it also has a heart that most films of its ilk don’t possess, making it the best of both worlds.
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My Old Ass opens in theaters on September 27.
