My Old Ass

My Old Ass, a coming-of-age film from writer/director Megan Park (The Fallout), staring Maisy Stella — a fine film debut — and Aubrey Plaza — the Old Ass of the title — in a delightful work that does absolutely nothing wrong, and often, very many things very right. Yet, somehow, it just misses becoming something truly great. That is not a reason to skip this film, which features a wonderful pair of performances by Stella as the younger version of Elliot, and Percy Hynes White as her love interest. If you are wondering what is meant by younger versions hang tight.

Courtesy Amazon MGM Studios

As the film begins, we meet Elliot, an 18-year-old Canadian farm girl who has grown up around a lake and who has long harbored a crush on another girl. One night, she and two friends go into the woods to get high on mushrooms and Elliot winds up meeting a version of herself from twenty-one years in the future, a version which begins insisting she spend more time with her family. Heeding this older Elliot’s advice, she is also keen to avoid Chad, whom Older Elliot implies is not good for them. Yet, upon meeting Chad, Elliot finds herself falling in love with the open, honest and very charming young man.

Through the course of the film, Elliot discovers she does indeed like boys-maybe more than girls, or maybe not, she has not yet decided-and that she has been to be obsessed with other things to notice, care or be told, that her family is selling their ancestral farm. They assumed she would not care, as all she has long said is how she wishes to leave the lake, the farm and never come back, once she heads off to college. She realizes this is not what she really wanted. She just wanted to get out and experience new things, for herself, but knowing the farm would always be there. Without the farm looming in her future, what might that mean for her to anchor herself somewhere?

Courtesy Amazon MGM Studios

Indeed, that is what the film is really about. Finding yourself and being happy with taking a journey to get wherever it is you are going. In a very real sense, it is about not letting what the future might contain, or even does, ever hold you back from experiencing all the joys and sorrows that come from just living. It is a simple thing, really, and handled with some care. There are other coming of age films that vaguely remind one of this-given a plot development toward the very end-and which are, yes, better films. That does not mean this is not worth seeing.

Where other films in the genre might have made Elliot an irredeemably self-possessed, annoying and very slow to learn character, this film wisely eschews many of the character pitfalls prevalent in such works. Elliot is allowed to be complicated, to grow, both up and back, and to find her way. She is smart, and she cares. She is confused but never becomes any sort of martyr. There is no big “breakdown of a crying brat” sequences to be found. Instead, you have scenes where she talks to friends and family, and we are both shown and talked about her relationships with these people. We are allowed to invest, so when the “twist” comes, it has some heft, even if it has been done many times before.

Courtesy Amazon MGM Studios

What prevents the film from joining the ranks of true classics is the predictability, and it is oh so close, because what it does well is done very well, and the rest is rather average. A few great scenes and a couple great characters do not a great film make. A very good one, perhaps. When, for instance, is the last time you watched a comedy where a character who knew they liked the same sex, came to terms with being bisexual? Maybe never?

My Old Ass is now streaming on Prime Video