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You should definitely give it a try.
Giving your movie a witty title is almost always half the battle. Megan Park's second feature debuted in the Sundance main competition and went on to online streaming a year later.
My Old Ass with Aubrey Plaza and Maisy Stella is a wry, unpretentious and well-directed story.
What Is My Old Ass About?
Elliott turns 18. The girl can't wait to leave her farm in provincial Canada and move to Toronto to start her big life. Despite the family gathered around the table, Elliott runs away from home on her birthday to celebrate with her friends in the woods.
After overdosing on illegal substances, she meets an adult version of herself. The 39-year-old Elliott boasts of a master's degree, advises spending more time with loved ones, and strictly forbids approaching a certain guy named Chad.
She can always contact herself from the future, the phone number is in her contacts. Curiosity takes its toll: after some time, young Elliott will fall madly in love with local farmer Chad and face the cruel truth.
My Old Ass Is a Simple but Captivating Story
Park takes a recognizable concept and, from the perspective of a person with life experience, asks the audience to consider the eternal question: What advice would you give to yourself in your youth? In a modest running time, the director arranges a therapeutic session and arrives at comforting conclusions.
During this time, Elliott manages to win over the audience with her emotional inconsistency, her struggle with established values, her sparkling and seething energy. The girl is instantly recognizable among the archetypes, thanks in large part to the charming performance of Maisy Stella, whose talent is sure to make a name for itself in Hollywood in the next few years.
There Are Too Few Scenes With Aubrey Plaza
The main flaw of the movie is Plaza's minimal screen presence. In two scenes, the audience can hardly draw any conclusions about the adult Elliott.
Plaza is convincing in both episodes, and especially in the finale, where she destroys stereotypes about her comedy image, adding drama and tears, but her charisma is sometimes noticeably lacking, as is the dialogue between the two versions of Elliott.
My Old Ass Is a Honest and Sincere Work
My Old Ass has all the right humor, from the aforementioned title to Elliott's younger brother and his obsession with Saoirse Ronan, who thinks the best strategy is to move to Ireland and marry the Little Women star.
Megan Park can't avoid most of the pitfalls of mainstream cinema, but she makes the movie with an important reminder: no matter what life throws at you, the final decision is always yours.