My Old Ass Review

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Would You Change Your Past If You Could?

My Old Ass is a new comedy/drama from Canadian writer/director Megan Park. It stars newcomer Maisy Stella (who looks a lot like a younger version of Big Brother Canada/ social media star Erica Hill) and the always hilarious/interesting/engaging Aubrey Plaza. The movie follows 18-year-old Elliott, a queer young woman on the cusp of leaving the pristine natural beauty of her family’s Muskoka cranberry farm for the freedom, independence, and adult responsibilities of big city university life in Toronto.

Although My Old Ass is aimed at a young demographic, older viewers will surely be able to identify with Elliott as she navigates her way through a particularly pivotal time in her life with high school in the rear-view mirror and the freedom and party atmosphere of a far-off university right around the corner. 

When we first meet Elliott she is an energetic free spirit who like most teenagers is at a rebellious stage where she feels the need to keep her family at an emotional distance. Although she has two younger brothers and loving parents Elliott appears happiest when she’s skimming across the lake in her speedboat, partying with her friends, swimming, and making out with a local girl. In terms of family dynamics perhaps one of the most telling interactions between Elliott and her brother Max occurs when she goes golfing with him. Max sums up his strained relationship with his sister by noting, “On my last birthday card you wrote I’d wish you a happy birthday, but cis white men don’t need any more happiness.”

My Old Ass is set during a memorable, nerve wracking, and emotionally wrought time in the life of any young person. One fateful night Elliott and her two friends try experimenting with magic mushrooms. Unlike her mates who spend their shrooms trip happily frolicking about through the woods Elliott’s experience is a little different as she manages to conjure up a version of herself 21 years in the future. Enter Aubrey Plaza. Thus the fun begins.

The 39-year-old version of Elliott is insightful, audacious, and funny. She chides her younger self for not wearing her night guard (resulting in the older Elliott having a gap in her front teeth) and the younger version of Elliott asks questions like when she’ll have her first threesome and how many children she and future her wife will have. It’s all fun and games until the older version of Elliott advises her younger self to spend more time with her family and then ominously warns against getting to know someone named Chad. Although she doesn’t elaborate there’s a definite foreboding in her words. 

Unbeknownst to young Elliott during the shrooms trip old Elliott programmed her phone number into her younger self’s phone so whenever 18-year-old Elliott wants to talk her older self she’s just a call away- filed under the name “My old ass”. This plot twist particularly comes in handy when Elliott unexpectedly meets Chad, a seasonal worker on her family’s farm. Despite the warning and Elliott being gay (she later reevaluates and opts to label herself bi or pan) the young couple grow closer. Before long it becomes glaringly obvious that not only are they are attracted to one another but on the verge of an intense relationship. 

Although My Old Ass is a comedy and has plenty of funny moments throughout the humor is tempered by the overriding themes explored throughout the film; in particular the question of whether or not we as human beings have free will or rather are our lives dictated by fate or merely the result of pure chance? Human nature is illogical. We all make mistakes but it’s interesting to ponder being in a situation where you could go back in time and warn your younger self of some impending doom or upcoming heartbreak. Would you listen to your own sage advice and  avoid a life altering mistake or would you instead opt to ignore the warning, follow your heart and barrel on ahead?  

I would argue that Aubrey Plaza’s final scene in My Old Ass is perhaps her best and most poignant work to date. The dialogue in this emotional scene is especially crisp and insightful especially when her character is confronted by her younger self’s naivete and lack of life experience. When she tries to explain how it feels to find true love the older Elliott notes, “Healthy love is like safety and freedom all at once” adding, “Loving and being loved is the best fucking thing in the world.” The younger Elliott is equally flummoxed by her older self’s seeming selfishness and fearfulness. At one point when challenged on her youthful optimism Elliott asserts, “if you weren’t young and dumb you’d never be fucking brave enough to do anything”.

My Old Ass is a comedy about a very specific and special time in a young person’s life; a time of hope and promise when anything appears possible. Although this is a very funny film with a healthy helping of Canadian content it also has it’s share of poignant and moving moments. Perhaps the best way to sum up one of the film’s themes involving the inevitable passage of time occurs near the end of My Old Ass as the summer is winding down Elliott laments, “I just really wish that time would just stop for a second so I could enjoy it for a little bit longer.” Unfortunately, time waits for no one. The moral of My Old Ass is that life is short and love is precious and rare so if you have an opportunity to find true love you should grab hold of it regardless of your age or any preconceived notions about how you think things may or may not turn out.

My Old Ass is in theatres now.