It's not so long ago that children were expected to be seen and not heard. Grownups knew best, and youngsters better listen to what they have to say. Things have flipped so much now that the idea of an older person imparting life advice to someone younger has become something of a taboo, along the lines of "mansplaining." Young people should indeed listen to their elders, because the latter have been around a longer and have experienced more of life. But older people have also made more mistakes than youngsters, and they're often set in their ways. It's important for the young to listen to the old, but they should never blindly follow their advice. Ignoring the previous generation is how society evolves. If we never questioned our elders women wouldn't be allowed to vote, black people would still be in chains and gay people wouldn't be allowed to exist.
One of the classic fallback interview questions is "What advice would you give to your younger self?" I'm sure you have your own answers (I certainly do), but if your younger self took that advice would they still be you or would they become a completely different version of you? Would this version of yourself be better or worse than the one you currently inhabit? Don't our experiences, both good and bad, make us who we are?
In writer/director Megan Park's My Old Ass, a 39-year-old Elliott (Aubrey Plaza) gets the chance to impart advice to her 18-year-old self (Maisy Stella). The latter lives what most would consider an idyllic life on her family's cranberry farm in an impossibly scenic corner of rural Canada, but she can't see the forest for the spruce. Like most teens, she just wants to get the hell away from her family and start her own life. It's the final days of summer and Elliott is preparing to leave for college in Toronto. Naturally, she wants to spend it with her friends rather than her family, but she rather cruelly leaves the latter sat around the dinner table as they wait for Elliott to come home and celebrate her birthday.
Instead Elliott heads off to an island with a couple of friends and a bag of hallucinogenic mushrooms. Just when it seems the shrooms aren't having the desired effect, Elliott finds her 39-year-old self sat beside her on a log. The questions she asks are self-centred - "Do I have a spouse and kids?", "Do I have a great career?" - rather than curious about the state of the world - "Have the US or Russia dropped the big one?", "Is there peace in the Middle East?", "Have Spurs won a trophy?". She's disappointed to learn that she's still single and is a mature student. While her 39-year-old self doesn't seem like the best person to take life advice from, her plea to be nicer to her family gets under young Elliott's skin. Older Elliott has one other piece of advice which she considers most important of all: avoid anyone named Chad.
The following morning Elliott wakes with a sore head and assumes her encounter with her older self was merely a hallucination, but then she discovers a new entry in her phone contacts, listed under "My Old Ass." Elliott finds that she is somehow able to communicate via phone with her older self, who repeats her plea to avoid anyone named Chad. Wouldn't you know it, that just happens to be the name of the cute summer worker (Percy Hynes White) who has just started working on her family's farm. Chad is instantly charming, but Elliott decides to heed her elder's advice and does her best to avoid him. But in classic rom-com fashion their paths keep crossing. Chad seems like the perfect guy ("We're in the presence of a literal angel," Elliott's kid brother beams at one point), but maybe it's the nice ones you need to watch out for, right? Older Elliott refuses to give her younger self a straight answer as to why Chad is bad news, and as teen Elliott begins to fall for this seemingly flawless young man she finds herself doubting the words of her more experienced self.
As a rom-com with science fiction elements, My Old Ass wisely avoids getting bogged down in the nitty gritty of its science. Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling knew that with only 25 minutes per episode he couldn't provide scientific explanations for the bizarre occurrences of his show, so he put his trust in the idea that if the story was compelling enough the audience wouldn't care for any such explanations. Park doesn't bother explaining how an 18-year-old can communicate via phone with her older self; you just have to accept it. If this bothers you then you're clearly not invested in the movie.
And believe me, unless you're made of stone you'll definitely be sucked in by Elliott's dilemma. As the young Elliott and Chad, Stella and Hynes White have an adorable chemistry that makes us root for them, even while questioning older Elliott's advice that Chad should be steered well clear of. It's a zippy rom-com with a light breeziness, but it's also surprisingly profound in its observations. There are two monologues in the film that will have anyone over a certain age reaching for the Kleenex as they get to the heart of what hurts most about getting older. As Elliott's mother, Maria Dizzia is gifted one of these speeches, and her delivery is so touching that you may well feel compelled to get on the phone to your own mum when the credits roll. Hynes White (as great as the love interest here as he was as the put-upon best friend in another recent Canadian indie gem, I Like Movies) gets the other monologue, which concerns how we take our youth for granted and which absolutely gutted me. A clearly affected Elliott defensively responds to the latter with a "That's deep dude" comment, but it genuinely is one of the most profound things I've heard a movie character say in recent times.
The teen rom-com has become a sadly neglected genre in recent years, and you imagine if My Old Ass played its premise straight or as a horror movie it might more easily receive the attention it deserves. Like the best rom-coms, it's as romantic as it is funny, but there's a depth to Park's film's that makes it stand out from the typical entry in this genre. With its surprisingly profound examination of the importance of living the life you want to live rather the one someone else lays out for you, it's a sunny cousin of 2024's most heartfelt horror movie, I Saw the TV Glow. Take the advice of my old ass and rush to see My Old Ass.
Directed by: Megan Park
Starring: Maisy Stella, Aubrey Plaza, Percy Hynes White, Maria Dizzia, Maddie Ziegler, Kerrice Brook
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