Aubrey Plaza & Maisy Stella Are A Comedic & Dramatic Force In This Pleasant Surprise

Growing up sucks. Time seems to move faster than we can reasonably keep pace with, the crushing disappointment of reality never quite lives up to our naïve expectations, and even the fondest of memories can fade and turn into deep wells of regret. None of these are particularly profound observations for anyone legally old enough to drink, and they’re certainly nothing that countless movies haven’t already addressed in every conceivable way. So when yet another R-rated coming-of-age dramedy pops up on the radar — centered on the well-worn trope of an idealistic 18-year-old relishing her last summer at home before moving away to bigger and better things in the city — a healthy dose of skepticism would appear to be fair game. Even a talent like Megan Park, whose directorial debut “The Fallout” instantly made her a name worth paying attention to, would be hard-pressed to wring anything new out of this premise.

Well, consider this a full-length mea culpa directed towards what’s undoubtedly the most emotional pleasant surprise of the year. Part drug-fueled romp, part gooey rom-com, and part unabashed teen melodrama (with a smidge of fairy-tale fantasy thrown in for good measure), “My Old Ass” takes arguably the most banal of trappings and brings a genuinely creative twist on formula. Of course, this also means Park’s script has one foot firmly planted in both the past and the present. Navigating around the genre’s many clichés while adding a refreshing, modern perspective makes that all but inevitable. There’s something oddly invigorating about an inherently nostalgic movie, featuring a young protagonist torn between free-spirited adolescence and sober-minded adulthood, taking full advantage of that same tension baked into its DNA.

That push and pull between extremes ends up being the key to success here. “My Old Ass” might arrive at a familiar destination, but only by taking the most unconventional of routes. And like any road trip worth taking, this is one film that understands that half the fun — much like growing up — comes from the impulsive choices we make along the way.

Like recent efforts (and obvious touchstones) such as “The Edge of Seventeen” or “Booksmart,” “My Old Ass” kicks off under the most mundane of circumstances. When we meet Maisy Stella’s Elliott, the queer teen’s only concern is finally hooking up with a local crush before leaving behind the idyllic farm she calls home for the greener pastures of college in Toronto. The rural Canadian woods provide the perfect backdrop for one last mushroom trip to celebrate her 18th birthday with her besties Ro (Kerrice Brooks) and Ruthie (Maddie Ziegler), a going-away ritual of sorts before she can embrace the next chapter of her life. But just when she despairs of a boring trip with no fun side effects whatsoever, Elliott is suddenly confronted out of the blue by her sarcastic, 39-year-old self in the form of Aubrey Plaza. (At first, in her hallucinogenic haze, Elliott mistakes her for a personification of God — understandably so.) They might not look much alike, but it takes very little effort to buy this tonal leap into the fantastical … even when older Elliott leaves her number in her younger counterpart’s phone before disappearing the next morning and the two embark on the weirdest long-distance friendship imaginable, ending any lingering suspicions that she’s simply a figment of younger Elliott’s imagination.

Although Plaza is reduced to a minimum of actual screen time from this point onwards, mostly confined to a voice performance on the other end of the phone, “My Old Ass” makes the absolute most of this wacky setup. Like the sister she never had, older Elliott revels in their inexplicable meeting and eagerly passes down both wisdom and warnings about what’s to come in the future … though with a touch of palpable melancholy. Life clearly hasn’t turned out as she once hoped it would, struggling to think of anything more exciting for young Elliott to look forward to other than her current (er, future?) status as a PhD student. No sweeping romances with multiple partners, no thrilling adventures in exotic locales, only one ominous piece of context-less advice: “Avoid Chad,” presumably the subject of a bad breakup in the years ahead. Naturally, she soon comes face to face with the interloper (Percy Hynes White), a manic pixie dream boy as harmless as a puppy who steadily lights the fire to her bisexual/pansexual awakening.

Is he really nothing but trouble? Park has all sorts of fun playing with this central dilemma, keeping things light and breezy even as we keep looking askance at a burgeoning crush who may or may not be bad news. Most impressively, however, Elliott is still given the benefit of actual interiority outside of her potential love interest. At her own self’s behest, she focuses on bonding with her dorky brother Max (Seth Isaac Johnson) and annoying mom (Maria Dizzia) while she still has the time to do so, taking the sentiments of her “old ass” to heart. As she wistfully puts it early on, “The only thing you can’t get back is time.”

The fact that “My Old Ass” feels like so much more than the sum of its parts is due in no small part to Plaza and Stella as its two dynamic leads. The film clearly hopes that Millennial and Gen Z audiences alike will come for the big name actor and stay for the newcomer’s captivating turn in her feature debut. Plaza adds a burst of star power as the older version of our main character, grounding this story in something real and meaningful. But it’s Stella as the teenaged Elliott who’s a legitimate revelation in the double-sided role, practically forcing the hands of Park, director of photography Kristen Correll, and editor Jennifer Vecchiarello to keep the camera trained on her expressive face at almost all times. And every time the storyline circles back around to embrace some of the tropes it’s attempting to reinvent — be it the occasional clunky bit of dialogue or the unmistakably white, privileged, and cisgender perspective that dominates the proceedings — it helps that Park has such a charismatic tool at her disposal. This keeps viewers invested and glued to the screen throughout its briskly-paced 89-minute runtime.

But even as developments build to what seems like a fairly typical climax, Park makes sure to throw in a wrinkle or two too significant to spoil here. Rest assured that Plaza and Stella have at least one more heartrending scene together that won’t leave anyone with a dry eye, regardless of whether you’re fortunate enough to watch this in a theater or streaming in your living room. In fact, one can easily imagine this movie becoming a sleepover staple among teens at home for years to come, one where laugh-out-loud references to “Little Women” (Greta Gerwig’s remake, of course), “Euphoria,” and one particularly entertaining ode to Justin Bieber will hit squarely in the bullseye of their intended targets.

Through it all, “My Old Ass” never loses sight of the big picture. Park weaves together theme, plot, and emotion through various montages with the skill of much more established filmmakers, knowing precisely when to tap the brakes and let scenes breathe for maximum impact. Best of all, she manages to capture what it’s like to look back at our lives with the benefit of hindsight … and, most importantly, to do so without regrets. Few movies in recent memory have a better grasp of what coming of age is really like, that it can be an intimidating and downright frightening endeavor at the best of times. But even if we were magically given a glimpse into our own future, there’s something admirable at the heart of this story — that growing up and allowing ourselves to become who we’re meant to be isn’t so bad, after all.

/Film Rating: 8 out of 10

“My Old Ass” will be released in limited theaters September 13, 2024, followed by its streaming debut on Prime Video September 27, 2024.