In 2021’s The Fallout, starring Jenna Ortega and Maddie Ziegler, first-time feature director Megan Park told a coming-of-age story of two teen girls who connect following their survival of a school shooting. It’s hard-hitting and heavy subject matter, and it’s because of that I assume Park chose her follow-up film, My Old Ass, to be something a bit more light in nature, and I can’t blame her.
Through events that can’t be explained, and don’t ever really need to be explained, when Elliott (Maisy Stella) spends her eighteenth birthday with friends Ruthie (Maddie Ziegler) and Ro (Kerrice Brooks) taking drugs in on an overnight camping trip, Elliott meets her older self (Aubrey Plaza). And it plays out like this: Older Elliott has just appeared out of nowhere as if she’s been summoned from the future to talk to her young self thanks to the power of drugs. Following some questioning and bonding, Older Elliott warns herself to spend more time with her family, be kinder to them, and also beware of a boy named Chad (Percy Hynes White), who, of course, shows up in her life the next day. Fortunately for her, a new number in her contacts entered as ‘Old Ass’ lets her talk to her older self now.
Every bit of My Old Ass that seems like every other film you’ve seen before has just enough of either a warm-hearted twist on it or enough LGBTQ colour to allow it to feel new. Because even when Elliott begins to spend more time with her family and a lot with an older brother on golf trips, she’s never portrayed as a stuck-up older sister who ever treated them too severely, just ignored. Tropes are dodged on her for a film like this, and the same for the family, none of which seem to have an ounce of problematic material to them. When we get to the big will-they-won’t-they of the film with Elliott and Chad, it could feel played out, but because it’s coming from a girl who had thought herself to be gay and discovering feelings for a boy for the first time, it all feels rather un-told in a narrative like the one in My Old Ass.
The other thing that helps My Old Ass is that it’s just a great time with a lot of laughs, a lot of heart and going to be enjoyed by all. And it’s all led by a sensational Maisy Stella, who previously was one of the stars of Nashville [alongside her sister Lennon, who also performed together did the song ‘While You Sleep’ for The Fallout], but should be expecting her agents’ phone to be ringing following the release of My Old Ass.
[Dylan attended a screening of My Old Ass thanks to the Melbourne International Film Festival]
