More wise than witty, writer/director Megan Park’s low-key comedy, “My Old Ass,” opening Sept. 27, is about learning to trust yourself and develop appreciation for the simple moments in life.
Elliott (Maisy Stella) is 18 years young and getting ready to head off to college in 22 days. While she feels her life is finally about to start, her biggest aspiration — other than leaving her small town of 300 people — is to hook up with Chelsea (Alexandria Rivera), the girl she’s been crushing on.
When she and her besties, Ro (Kerrice Brooks) and Ruthie (Maddie Ziegler), celebrate Elliott’s birthday with hallucinogens, Elliott’s trip becomes truly metaphysical; she comes face to face with her 39-year-old self (Aubrey Plaza). Of course, Elliott has questions. What stock should she buy to get rich? Am I married to a woman, and do we have three kids? And, can I kiss you and touch your — or rather, my — old ass? Older Elliott, however, is a bit of a buzzkill, giving Elliott no market tips, and explaining there are no kids and no dream job. She cryptically tells her younger self, “The only thing you can’t get back is time.” But Older Elliott does emphasize being nice to her mother, spending more time with her brothers, and if she heeds no other advice, it is critical that she stay away from Chad.
Who is Chad, and what terrible things happened with him, Elliott wonders. Older Elliott does not reveal, but she does show off a toe she lost (and misses). Shortly after this magical encounter, Elliott meets a summer worker on the family’s cranberry farm, named Chad (Perry Hynes White). He is both charming and annoyingly perfect. And despite all Elliott’s efforts to resist him, she starts to develop “weird feelings” for Chad. She even wonders if she is gay anymore. Maybe she’s bi or pan?
“My Old Ass” is sweet as it chronicles Elliott’s changing desires, as well as her efforts to bond with her brother Max (Seth Isaac Johnson) and spend more time with her mom, Kathy (Maria Dizzia). But it is Elliott’s periodic phone calls to her older self that provide the film with its heart. As Older Elliott doles out life lessons about healthy love and realizing that what you think you want may not be what you really want, Elliott tries to reconcile what she knows with what she feels. And when Chad talks with Elliott about childhood memories and moments, or Kathy recounts caring for Elliott as a baby, the film is more bittersweet than comic.
The various heartfelt scenes provide some meat on a film that otherwise feels pretty slight. Elliott’s character may be young and naive, but she seems almost unformed. Her interactions with Chelsea stop almost immediately after she connects with Chad. If she struggles with her sexuality, it happens mostly off-screen. There is not sufficient sexual tension or chemistry between Elliott and Chad to make viewers care as deeply about their romance as the characters do.
While Elliott is likable, one subplot has her outraged when she learns something about her family farm that everyone else has long known. But it is hard to feel sympathy for her, because, as everyone indicates, she wasn’t all that interested.
The comedy is also uneven. Some of the humor is gently amusing, such as Elliott’s clumsiness in a motorboat, and some of it feels lame, such as a gag about Elliott’s younger brother Spencer’s (Carter Trozzolo) obsession with actress Saoirse Ronan. One humorous moment that will work only for viewers of a certain age involves a fantasy sequence where Elliott mimics a once popular singer — but even that joke goes on a little too long.
To the film’s credit, the magical realism is well handled. Although there are only two scenes featuring Elliott conversing with Older Elliott in person — with most of their exchanges consisting of phone calls — Park wisely resists having Older Elliott side-by-side with her younger self, commenting on her every action. And when Older Elliott fails to respond to Elliott’s calls and messages, it provides an opportunity for Elliott to figure things out for herself, which is valuable. (Though Older Elliott does repeatedly emphasize that she needs to wear her retainer and that she should moisturize.)
As Elliott, Maisy Stella is appealing, but she is better in her carefree moments than her dramatic ones. Aubrey Plaza is fabulous as the Older Elliot, even if she mostly phones in her performance. As Chad, Perry Hynes White is asked to play nice and noble, which he does admirably, but he is also kind of bland. Even the reliable Maria Dizzia, is given too little to do until she delivers a moving speech in the film’s end.
And that is what is best about, “My Old Ass.” The film kind of figures itself out, like a teenager, and then it sneaks up on viewers providing a surprisingly emotional moment or two in its final moments. Somehow, when the film (and Elliott) does this, all flaws are forgiven.
