My Old Ass review

MY OLD ASS: 

GET YOUR ASS INTO A MOVIE THEATER SEAT AND WATCH THIS STELLAR COMEDY-DRAMA WITH YOUR OLD ASS! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: **** out of 4

MGM

Aubrey Plaza and Maisy Stella in My Old Ass

 

            Before anyone asks, yes this is the better Aubrey Plaza (Scott Pilgrim VS the World, Safety Not Guaranteed, Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates) movie that came out during Megalopolis weekend. In the tradition of the Bruce Willis Disney comedy, The Kid, 13 Going on 30, and 17 Again, we have another movie about a person meeting/turning into their future/past self, but this time with significantly more F-bombs and hallucinogenic mushrooms in the new comedy-drama, My Old Ass. 

            The film is written and directed by Megan Park (The Fallout) and adds a new twist to the whole “If you could talk to your past/future self, what would you say?” trope. The movie looked interesting and quite funny by the trailer though I had only seen it a couple of times in theaters and wasn’t super high on my movie watching agenda. 

            Let’s just say after watching it, I am so happy I parked my ass in a movie theater seat to watch this film because My Old Ass is fantastic…oh, and so is the movie. I found this to be a very funny, heartfelt, and surprisingly clever take on a story we’ve heard many times before. 

            The film follows Elliott (Maisy Stella-Nashville, Spirit: Riding Free; in her feature film debut), an eighteen year old girl who takes a mushroom trip on her birthday and comes face to face with her wisecracking 39-year-old future self (Played by Plaza). But when her “old ass” starts warning her about what she should and shouldn’t do with her life (Specifically to avoid people named Chad), Elliott realizes she has to rethink everything about family, love, and what’s becoming a transformative summer. 

            The film also stars Percy Hynes White (Rupture, The Gifted, Pretty Hard Cases) as Chad, Maddie Ziegler (To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You, The Fallout, West Side Story (2021)) as Ruthie, Maria Dizzia (The Other Woman, Margin Call, Late Night) as Kathy, and Seth Isaac Johnson (The Killing) as Max. 

            Overall, My Old Ass is one of the most pleasant surprises I had all year (Though I’m sure I said that a lot this year with certain films) and found it incredibly funny and charming throughout. I love how the film doesn’t need to explain or go into much detail as to how Maisy’s Elliott is able to see and interact with her future self. 

Any other movie would either build up the future version or overly explain how this is happening. Instead, she takes mushrooms and now she sees her future self, that’s it and she’s there literally at the beginning of the film which is great. 

I also admire how the film keeps a lot of details vague, most notably the future 39-year-old Elliott lives in. Aside from a few background noises when past Elliott is on the phone with her “Old Ass” and some references to events future Elliott experienced you, like Elliott herself don’t know what the future has in store which is very smart and leaves a ton of mystery to what has yet to come. 

Both Maisy Stella and Aubrey Plaza are excellent as Elliott, I’m not familiar with Stella’s other work, but I thought she had great comedic timing and also sells her dramatic and heartwarming moments as well while also having great chemistry not just with her future self but her family members, friends, and the infamous Chad. Aubrey Plaza as a wisecracking and somewhat cynical older version of Elliott I feel needs no introduction since she can pretty much play this role in her sleep, she is hilarious in this movie and most of it comes from her comedic delivery without ever hijacking the film. 

The movie even managed to surprise me with a couple of its twists revolving around some characters and quite effectively. I won’t give any away here and if you’ve seen it already then you should know what I’m talking about. 

Not sure what else to say, My Old Ass is a funny, charming coming-of-age story about a teenager and her future self brilliantly portrayed by its two leads with a captivating story to boot. The only other thing I can say is get your old (or young) asses into those movie theater seats and watch this incredible film now.