Me, Myself & I or, The My Old Ass Review

Outside of showcasing the fun of mushroom trips, My Old Ass announces the arrival of an exciting young star. In a role that brings to mind Emma Stone’s earlier role in the excellent Easy A, Maisy Stella brings the perfect blend of heart and humor to director and writer Megan Park’s (The Fallout) latest film.

It helps that Park’s second project centers around a pretty catchy idea: What if younger you had the chance to shoot the shit with older you? It’s a hypothetical that comes to life for 18-year-old Elliott (Stella, Nashville). To celebrate the end of high school and her imminent move to the big city of Toronto, Elliott and her friends Ruthie (Maddie Ziegler, who returns to work with Park after starring in The Fallout) and Ro (Kerrice Brooks, who popped up in Billie Eilish’s music video for ‘Lost Cause’) go to the woods to take some shrooms and bask in the wilderness. Things go pretty well: Ruthie talks to some bunnies, Ro dances the night away, and Elliott gets a visit from her 39-year-old self (Aubrey Plaza, Parks and Recreation).

Like any high-off-their-ass young adult, Elliott is more than happy to interrogate her older self. What’s the future like? Are they married with kids? Are they happy? What stocks should they invest in now? Park takes the smart road of not getting lost in the trees about the logic of Plaza’s sudden appearance. It simply occurs, with Plaza and Stella taking a second to throw out a variety of theories, before shrugging it off and getting to the more entertaining act of riffing with one another. Amid the banter, older Elliott does impart some wisdom to their younger self before the mushroom trip ends: hang out with their family as much as possible, and avoid a future lover/heartbreaker that goes by the ominous name of Chad.

These first few sequences of the film are its best, mainly due to the combination of a high concept filled with very enjoyable characters and performances. However, the ultimate twist is that the film turns from its sci-fi/fantasy intro to become a light and breezy summer-set coming of age film. It’s a slight disappointment that Stella and Plaza don’t actually hang out in person too much for the rest of the film, but the story that Park offers keeps a strong sense of charm. 

None of this works without the stellar and winning performance of Stella. As Elliott, she initially gives audiences a character that’s refreshingly brash and confident. She’s hot shit and she pretty much backs it up in the film’s initial scenes where she takes drugs, hooks up with her barista boo, and commits to her goal of leaving town for the big city. Of course, once older Elliott comes into the picture, Stella makes her character’s transformation to a more understanding and open character feel natural. In the film’s more emotional moments, where Elliott bonds with her brothers (played with precociousness and hard-headedness by Seth Isaac Johnson and Carter Trozzolo, respectively) and gains an appreciation for her loving mother (Maria Dizzia), Stella sells her character’s growth in quiet scenes that use emotionally loaded glances and tears.

It helps that Park has the chops to make an easygoing coming of age film that doesn’t need to rely on antagonists like bullies or misunderstanding adults. The only antagonist in the film is Elliott herself. Armed with small, yet impactful, warnings from her future self on the topics of family and love, Elliot is tasked with the concept that maybe she doesn’t understand the world, or herself, as much as she thought she did. Compared to other films in the genre, it’s a low stakes yet warmer take and it thrives because Park and Stella showcase a lot of care for their central character. 

My Old Ass also feels like a more modern and accepting coming of age movie. One of the main roadblocks Elliott faces is the promised fuck boy Chad (Percy Hynes White, Wednesday), a kid working for her dad on her family’s cranberry farm. The catch is that not only is Chad a legit nice person, he’s also a guy, who Elliott for her entire life didn’t find herself attracted to. As a self-proclaimed lesbian, this new suitor throws a wrench in Elliott’s assessment of themselves — a reckoning that is warmly discussed in a scene between Eliott and Ro. Scenes like this exemplify the confidence and casualness of Park and Stella’s navigation of Elliott’s internal questioning. That said, the film does unintentionally callback to the sensibilities of older films where a woman who has only dated women suddenly falls for a guy. Still, My Old Ass and Stella’s nuanced performance mostly make this development feel authentic since it is coming from a kid still figuring themselves out.

Nevertheless, Hynes White and Stella have some pretty cute chemistry. Their characters go through the requisite coming of age romance BS: meet cutes, initial rejections from one side, tripping onto and into one another, etc. Again, Park is working on some well-tread paths, but the characters mostly make these familiar setups ring with natural chemistry. In a way, the sci-fi/fantasy aspect of Plaza’s role kind of throws off the more natural flow of Park’s relaxed coming of age soirée.

Indeed, Plaza is only physically present at the beginning and end of the film (occasionally popping up through voiceover on a few scenes where the Elliotts converse with another over the phone). While she does what she’s good at in these scenes — be sarcastic, slightly horny, and adept at tapping into some wells of sadness— the film may not lose much quality if it lost the “meet my future self” aspect. At the same time, these moments are still fun, so if anything it feels like having a whole lot of ice cream only to follow it up with an unneeded (but still very enjoyable) serving of cake. 

Atop all of this ice cream and cake stands Maisy Stella. Seriously, if there’s one thing to take away from this piece, it’s that she has the potential to be the real deal. Stella brings genuine heart, humor, and winning charm to a film that has a few of its own nice surprises.

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