‘My Old Ass’: Sundance Review

Dir/scr: Megan Park. US. 2003. 94min

Eighteen-year-old Elliott (Maisy Stella) has just a few weeks left of summer to celebrate her last days of total freedom before college – and adulthood – begins. During a camping trip in the woods just north of Toronto with her two best friends, Elliott takes hallucinogenic mushrooms with unexpected results. Rather than simply trip-out, she meets her cheeky 39-year-old future self, aka ‘my old ass’ (Aubrey Plaza), who leaves her with some key pieces of advice: use this precious little time she has left at home to connect with her family and, more importantly, “Stay away from Chad.”

Grounded in the tender realities of growing up and finding oneself 

Canadian actress-turned-director Megan Park (2021 SXSW winner The Fallout) is not reinventing the wheel with this conventional coming-of-age comic drama, but it is heartfelt and feelgood enough to win over most audiences, particularly those who like Greta Gerwig’s Little Women (referenced in the film). That Barbie’s Margot Robbie is a producer may also help its prospects.

After its magical set-up, the film plays around briefly with the conceit, with Elliott’s adult persona contacting her younger self via cellphone and giving her messages, sometimes darkly comic, about herself or the future (“Nobody is allowed to have three kids anymore,” the older Elliott says). More meaningfully, the fantastical elements soon fade away and the film becomes grounded in the tender realities of growing up, finding oneself and questions about love, sexuality, home, family, and the future.

As the young Elliot grapples with those issues, it does not take long for said Chad (Percy Hynes White) to show up. The two meet-cute, by surprise, both skinny-dipping in a secluded spot in the lake. But with her older self’s warnings ringing in her ear, Elliott does her best to keep her distance from Chad. Further complicating matters, Elliott, who thinks of herself as queer, is also hooking up with a young woman who works on the boat launch. But as much as Elliott tries to stay away from Chad, in true YA romantic fashion there is something inevitable – and quite possibly dangerous – about their connection. 

Along the way, Elliott also contends with her familial relationships. She has two younger brothers (one a straightlaced golfer, the youngest obsessed with Saoirse Ronan) and, of course, her mother and father, none of whom are given much depth or substance as characters. But My Old Ass is less interested in family than it is in capturing the unique experience of young adulthood — of leaving your younger self behind, trying not to be afraid of what comes next and just living in the moment. When Plaza (always funny) returns for a final act twist, the revelation delivers an unexpectedly affecting conclusion that further hits the points home. 

From the golden-hued cinematic hues of the film’s cinematography and its idyllic lakeside landscapes to the fresh-faced young actors — particularly Maisy Stella’s Elliott, with her charming smile — everything in the film is focused on capturing a kind of innocence-almost-but-not-yet-lost. By film’s end, even Plaza, ever the emblem for the cynical, sassy, and sardonic, has become an earnest advocate for seizing that moment and never letting it go.