Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Megan Park
Starring: Maisy Stella, Aubrey Plaza, Percy Hynes White, Maria Dizzia, Maddie Ziegler, Kerrice Brook
It's not so long ago that children were expected to be seen and not
heard. Grownups knew best, and youngsters better listen to what they
have to say. Things have flipped so much now that the idea of an older
person imparting life advice to someone younger has become something of
a taboo, along the lines of "mansplaining." Young people should indeed
listen to their elders, because the latter have been around a longer and
have experienced more of life. But older people have also made more
mistakes than youngsters, and they're often set in their ways. It's
important for the young to listen to the old, but they should never
blindly follow their advice. Ignoring the previous generation is how
society evolves. If we never questioned our elders women wouldn't be
allowed to vote, black people would still be in chains and gay people
wouldn't be allowed to exist.
One of the classic fallback interview questions is "What advice would
you give to your younger self?" I'm sure you have your own answers (I
certainly do), but if your younger self took that advice would they
still be you or would they become a completely different version of you?
Would this version of yourself be better or worse than the one you
currently inhabit? Don't our experiences, both good and bad, make us who
we are?
In writer/director Megan Park's My Old Ass, a 39-year-old Elliott (Aubrey Plaza) gets the chance to impart
advice to her 18-year-old self (Maisy Stella). The latter lives
what most would consider an idyllic life on her family's cranberry farm
in an impossibly scenic corner of rural Canada, but she can't see the
forest for the spruce. Like most teens, she just wants to get the hell
away from her family and start her own life. It's the final days of
summer and Elliott is preparing to leave for college in Toronto.
Naturally, she wants to spend it with her friends rather than her
family, but she rather cruelly leaves the latter sat around the dinner
table as they wait for Elliott to come home and celebrate her
birthday.
Instead Elliott heads off to an island with a couple of friends and a
bag of hallucinogenic mushrooms. Just when it seems the shrooms aren't
having the desired effect, Elliott finds her 39-year-old self sat beside
her on a log. The questions she asks are self-centred - "Do I have a
spouse and kids?", "Do I have a great career?" - rather than curious
about the state of the world - "Have the US or Russia dropped the big
one?", "Is there peace in the Middle East?", "Have Spurs won a trophy?".
She's disappointed to learn that she's still single and is a mature
student. While her 39-year-old self doesn't seem like the best person to
take life advice from, her plea to be nicer to her family gets under
young Elliott's skin. Older Elliott has one other piece of advice which
she considers most important of all: avoid anyone named Chad.
The following morning Elliott wakes with a sore head and assumes her
encounter with her older self was merely a hallucination, but then she
discovers a new entry in her phone contacts, listed under "My Old Ass."
Elliott finds that she is somehow able to communicate via phone with her
older self, who repeats her plea to avoid anyone named Chad. Wouldn't
you know it, that just happens to be the name of the cute summer worker
(Percy Hynes White) who has just started working on her family's
farm. Chad is instantly charming, but Elliott decides to heed her
elder's advice and does her best to avoid him. But in classic rom-com
fashion their paths keep crossing. Chad seems like the perfect guy
("We're in the presence of a literal angel," Elliott's kid brother beams
at one point), but maybe it's the nice ones you need to watch out for,
right? Older Elliott refuses to give her younger self a straight answer
as to why Chad is bad news, and as teen Elliott begins to fall for this
seemingly flawless young man she finds herself doubting the words of her
more experienced self.
As a rom-com with science fiction elements, My Old Ass wisely avoids getting bogged down in the nitty gritty of its
science. Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling knew that with only 25 minutes per episode he
couldn't provide scientific explanations for the bizarre occurrences of
his show, so he put his trust in the idea that if the story was
compelling enough the audience wouldn't care for any such explanations.
Park doesn't bother explaining how an 18-year-old can communicate via
phone with her older self; you just have to accept it. If this bothers
you then you're clearly not invested in the movie.
And believe me, unless you're made of stone you'll definitely be sucked
in by Elliott's dilemma. As the young Elliott and Chad, Stella and Hynes
White have an adorable chemistry that makes us root for them, even while
questioning older Elliott's advice that Chad should be steered well
clear of. It's a zippy rom-com with a light breeziness, but it's also
surprisingly profound in its observations. There are two monologues in
the film that will have anyone over a certain age reaching for the
Kleenex as they get to the heart of what hurts most about getting older.
As Elliott's mother, Maria Dizzia is gifted one of
these speeches, and her delivery is so touching that you may well feel
compelled to get on the phone to your own mum when the credits roll.
Hynes White (as great as the love interest here as he was as the
put-upon best friend in another recent Canadian indie gem, I Like Movies) gets the other monologue, which concerns how we take our youth for
granted and which absolutely gutted me. A clearly affected Elliott
defensively responds to the latter with a "That's deep dude" comment,
but it genuinely is one of the most profound things I've heard a movie
character say in recent times.
The teen rom-com has become a sadly neglected genre in recent years,
and you imagine if My Old Ass played its premise straight or as a horror movie it might more
easily receive the attention it deserves. Like the best rom-coms, it's
as romantic as it is funny, but there's a depth to Park's film's that
makes it stand out from the typical entry in this genre. With its
surprisingly profound examination of the importance of living the life
you want to live rather the one someone else lays out for you, it's a
sunny cousin of 2024's most heartfelt horror movie, I Saw the TV Glow. Take the advice of my old ass and rush to see My Old Ass.
My Old Ass is in UK/ROI cinemas
from September 27th.
