When you’re 18 years old, the desire to know what your future holds is at an all-time high.
For most, high school is coming to a close, and the next chapter is just beginning. The thought of leaving home and moving to a new place, meeting different friends, and having unique experiences is both exhilarating and equally terrifying.
Most teenagers have spent the past few years dreaming about what they’ll do when they receive the freedom to make what they want of their lives. However, what you think you’re set on at this young age can quickly change in the blink of an eye.
Is moving away from home the right decision? How do you say goodbye to your friends, family, and significant others, knowing they may not be the same person when you return? Is the possibility of new experiences all that great when you don’t know how they’ll end?
Growing up is guaranteed, but what happens in the process is far less certain.
My Old Ass blends comedy, drama, and science fiction in order to deliver an undeniably engaging coming-of-age story. Starring Maisy Stella, Percy Hynes White, Aubrey Plaza, Kerrice Brooks, and Maddie Ziegler, the film is written and directed by Canadian filmmaker Megan Park. Among their team of stellar producers are Margot Robbie and her husband, Tom Ackerley.
My Old Ass was theatrically released on Sept. 13, and its distributor, Amazon MGM Studios, plans on a later streaming date.
Elliott (Stella) is gearing up to leave for her freshman year at the University of Toronto. She has spent her life living and working at her family’s cranberry farm in Northern Ontario. While her future isn’t crystal clear, she is certain that she doesn’t want to continue the family legacy of farming. On her 18th birthday, she and two of her friends, Ro (Brooks) and Ruthie (Ziegler), head out to a remote forest on the lake to take hallucinogenic mushrooms.
Throughout the night, Elliott has an encounter with an older version of herself (Plaza) at the age of 39. The pair spend the night talking about the different phases of their life, with older Elliott trying to avoid spoiling any major points in the future that she’s yet to experience. Before the night ends, older Elliott emphasizes the importance of staying away from a mysterious individual named Chad (Hynes White) and leaves her cell phone number in young Elliott’s phone so that they can remain in touch.
Was young Elliott’s experience all a dream, or is there now a way for her to change her future?
My Old Ass is the perfect coming-of-age film. Park’s mix of humour and serious emotions blend seamlessly and result in an intriguing watch. All of the characters are likeable, making them easy to root for throughout this thought-provoking story. Even when Elliott is at her worst, neglecting her family and focusing on her friends, the film puts her emotions and choices into a perspective that many viewers are able to relate to and sympathize with.
The film asks viewers a number of thought-provoking questions: given the chance, would you want to know what lies ahead? Is your life everything you dreamed of, and is change worth the risk? Am I happy? Or would you rather ride it out all on your own, simply relying on your own instincts and decisions?
Stella’s performance in the lead role is outstanding. She perfectly captures what it feels like to endure the trials of young adulthood.
The theme of leaving a small town behind for the big city is one that many university students relate to. Her character endures struggles related to family dynamics, self-identification, saying goodbye to both places and people and questioning her future.
While Elliott seems so sure of her choices and actions at the beginning of the film, she realizes she is actively making decisions that impact her future on a daily basis and the person she’ll ultimately become. Her outlook on life changes over the course of this film, and Elliott learns to embrace change and be at peace with what is out of her control.
The humour throughout My Old Ass enhances the overall storytelling techniques. As this is a very emotional story about self-discovery, Park cleverly uses quick one-liners and funny situations to break up budding moments of tension. This story remains true to the nature of growing up; it’s a time to make mistakes, fall down, get back up and slowly establish the various aspects of yourself that truly make you, you.
My Old Ass will unconsciously make you reflect on your own life. Has your future turned out to be one that your younger self would be proud of? What do you hope your next chapter will hold? This film allows you to reminisce on a time when change was upon you, just as it is for Elliott.
While we can’t speak to our older selves, Park reminds us to have confidence in the fact that everything you experience, good or bad, crafts you into the person that you are.