The summer before college, bright-yet-irreverent Elliott comes face-to-face with her older self during a mushroom trip. The encounter spurs a funny and heartfelt journey of self-discovery and first love as Elliott prepares to leave her childhood home.
Writer-director Megan Park’s tender, surprising sophomore feature cleverly uses its high-concept premise of a visit from one’s future self to launch a refreshing, nuanced exploration of the uncertainties of young romance and coming of age. MY OLD ASS is a sweet teenage love story, a lively contemporary comedy, and a quirky riff on time-travel films — all in one.
Maisy Stella and Aubrey Plaza have a terrific unlikely chemistry, as the sass and self-assuredness of the young Elliott, as played by Stella, blends and overlaps with Plaza’s sardonic humor as a more mature Elliott. The care and affection shown in the film’s depiction of Elliott’s rural hometown in her last days before taking off for adulthood visually highlights her emotional journey, evoking a nostalgia for days that haven’t even ended yet. (Synopsis courtesy of Sundance Film Festival 2024 Program Guide)
“The landscapes alone are enough to make you cry. Odds are good you’ll tear up eventually. It’s that kind of movie, with a twist that redefines which genre audiences had been watching all along.” —Peter Debruge, Variety
“A winsome delight, a movie whose gimmick is used to surprisingly stirring effect…. It’s a great and instructive movie for teens — and, I daresay, for the rest of us too.” —Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair
“Being young and dumb is something most can understand and MY OLD ASS and its magnetic cast succeed in edifying that moment in time just before it passes.” —Ariana Martinez, The Wrap