Megan Park’s My Old Ass takes the idea “what would you tell your younger self” literally with a drug-induced trip that suggests maybe it’s better to experience the highs and lows of life than avoid them in fear of heartbreak and disappointment. 

The summer before leaving for college, Elliot is anxious but ready to give up her small town for the big city, Toronto. As one about to leave for college does, she is rapidly counting down the days even skipping a family dinner for a night in the forest tripping on mushrooms with her best friends. She is annoyed when her friends start feeling the effects of overacted fashions, waiting alone on a log in front of the campfire when her 39-year-old self appears to keep her company. Park’s script doesn’t take time to explain how this phenomenon of a time-traveling Elliot occurs and how they can call and text one another from separate dimensions instead she sticks younger Elliot with a mission: spend as much time with her family as she can and avoid someone named Chad. 

A quick introduction to set the foundation of Elliot’s world from family and friends then diving into the main attraction of Teenage Elliot and Older Elliot coming together. Elliot has assumed her older self has figured everything out for them, living the most amazing life but unfortunately, it seems like things did not go in the direction she hoped. Older Elliot lets her know they aren’t married and don’t have their dream job, but they are a PhD student. Teenage Elliot dismisses the interaction until she spots her “Old Ass” in her poem, she starts to take in the words her older self presented to her younger self to make some changes in her final days at home that has the energy of one very long day in its unclear timeline.

Set in the serene environment of a lakeside Canadian town, the essence of self-reflection is alive throughout My Old Ass. Watching Elliot grip with her future and present, causes the same level of awareness within the viewer. Imagine the last time you were home with your entire family and things were simple before life got harder or if you are on the verge of reaching the age where that is your last time.  The sentimentality is there as time suddenly slows for Elliot to spend her days golfing with her brother and working on the cranberry fields with her father. The things Elliot took for granted the day before she tripped are suddenly at the forefront of importance. Especially at the crucial time of about to start school, a time reserved for reflecting on how we got to this point spending the summer months free from the shackles of schooling and responsibility. Sometimes that time slips away and those few days left are spent reclaiming time you can’t get back. 

Park’s previous film The Fallout managed to be one of the few films to capture the essence of Gen Z. Our fears, our worries, our mental health in a world that feels like there’s a dead end for our futures. She continues her pathway of highlighting young girlhood in the 2020s through her lead played by Maisy Stella. Stella melts into Elliot so seamlessly feeling like her words are not scripted but coming to her as she navigates this turning moment of her youth. Although some of the dialogue borderlines cringe at times it feels exactly how a generation raised on podcasting and social media would speak when trying to make a larger point on the state of life. A generation that feels that they have figured everything out without figuring everything out simply by how online they are. Elliot comes to this moment realizing she has gone her whole life thinking she was gay until Chad appears, throwing a point of conflict when she has to reevaluate who she is. 

The representation of an Older Elliot played by the incomparable Audrey Plaza is to not judge how one’s life turned out but rather enjoy these little moments of our present that we can often take for granted. The conversations we have with our moms will one day be nonexistent and some people would do whatever to be able to have that back even an Older Elliot. Her warnings to Younger Eliiot are to prevent her from the heartbreak of living in this period where young people feel that they can’t make mistakes or it jeopardizes their entire future. If the mistake is harmless it all amounts up to the experience of life and to not indulge in the trials and tribulations of this one life you get can cause dire repercussions in the future with actual regret for not living. It’s better to go into the unknown than the knowing of all that will unfold for you otherwise what would living life be for?

My Old Ass has a lot going for it, especially after the success of Park’s previous film, The Fall Out. While the overarching idea of revisiting your past self is experimental and intriguing, there is something off about this execution. Characters in Elliot’s life are hastily sidelined after introductions and once Chad becomes the center of her life. Elliot’s identity seems to hamper her romantic life which inhibits any other part of her ever being explored such as what she is studying, what she wants to be, and who she is.

There is a hollow nature to the world Elliot lives in as she is a model of this idea for the sake of moving the story along. Like the film suggests she doesn’t need to have this all figured out by 18 it just leads to no actual emotional stakes during her learning period of connecting with life around her. She feels like a caricature of the younger generation as do her peers. The substance of a great movie is in there hiding underneath its very uncinematic steaming-like visuals but its end product feels as vast as the lake Elliot meets Chad in. 

My Old Ass is a tender sendoff to the life we know as we enter the next stage of life where things aren’t as simple as they once were.

Grade: C

Oscars Prospects:
Likely: None
Should be Considered: None

Release Date: September 13, 2024
Where to Watch: In Theaters