Teen Gets Real: Hilarious & Wise Conversations With Her Future Self in ‘My Old Ass’ Revealed!

“My Old Ass” by Megan Park revolves around a common pondering: If you could give advice to your younger self, what would it be? The film’s creator and director, Park, brings this thought to life through the main character, Elliott, portrayed by Maisy Stella when she’s 18 (in her debut film role) and by Aubrey Plaza when she’s 39.

On the day she turns 18, Elliott, a young woman raised on a Canadian cranberry farm, takes her two closest friends, Ruthie (played by Maddie Ziegler) and Ro (Kerrice Brooks), on a boat ride to an island in Lake Muskoka for a mushroom-induced celebration. While Ro dances the night away and Ruthie connects with nature, Elliott encounters her future 39-year-old self, or her “old ass,” who cautions her to spend more time with her family and to avoid dating a guy named Chad.

As fate would have it, Elliott soon meets a Chad (Percy Hynes White), a seasonal employee at the cranberry farm, while he’s skinny-dipping. The advice to avoid Chad should be easy for Elliott, a queer woman who’s started a summer fling with a local coffee shop worker, except that Chad unexpectedly catches her eye. Luckily, she has her “Old Ass” saved in her phone, and through messages and calls, her future self helps her navigate these complicated times.

Despite its supernatural twist, “My Old Ass” is essentially a conventional coming-of-age tale. The film has the polished, glamorous aesthetic of a teen drama series, with sweeping aerial shots showcasing the picturesque beauty of Muskoka Lakes. The time Park centers her script around—the weeks leading up to college—is a common theme in young adult films. To counteract this, she crafts a strikingly robust script for this genre, expertly blending sentimental moments with a hip, skater-queer-cool-kid vernacular that both Stella and Plaza effortlessly embody.

The film also delves into life’s hard-earned wisdom and the bittersweet passage of time—a concept that’s nearly impossible to grasp as a teenager but all too relatable for those nearing 40 and looking back with regret. Life seems so straightforward when you’re 18, yet it becomes incredibly complex after a couple of decades.

The question “Are we happy?” is not the one Elliott should be posing to her older self, who struggles to respond. As it turns out, “happiness” isn’t about material possessions or achievements, but about finding peace in the present moment. Interestingly, her 39-year-old self doesn’t appear to be doing well. She’s a PhD student who escapes into some sort of meditation retreat invented by reality TV star offspring Penelope Disick. She drops vague hints about the state of the world in which she’s currently living.

However, as they both recognize over these few short weeks, warnings to avoid potentially painful experiences are futile. The possibility of pain enhances the beauty and sweetness of life. The true lesson is to never take anything for granted, to live in a state of gratitude, not in the future or the past but the present.

While these ideas may not be groundbreaking, they are profound. They resonate universally because they are truths, and Park conveys these lessons with honesty and charisma in “My Old Ass.” This is largely due to the charm of her protagonist, Stella, who presents a unique and memorable character in this type of film as a tomboyish queer woman, casually clad in loose shorts and Birkenstocks. Her portrayal of Elliott is sincere, even in her sarcastic teenage manner.

Although “My Old Ass” aims to be more enlightening than it is (or perhaps that’s just the perspective from the other side of 40), part of life is the repeated cycle of young people learning these lessons again and again. The young person in this film just learns it a bit earlier, when she’s still naive enough to appreciate it in the moment. What a precious gift from her old ass.

Katie Walsh is a Tribune News Service film critic.