Review: 'My Old Ass' gives a cocky 18-year-old girl a chance to see her future self, in a brilliant coming-of-age comedy about the mistakes we make toward adulthood

Writer-director Megan Park’s comedy “My Old Ass” is hands-down one of the best coming-of-age stories in a long time — one that asks viewers to consider what they would have told their younger selves if given the chance.

Elliott, played by Maisy Stella, is 18 and exceedingly eager to leave her small Canadian town, her parents’ cranberry farm and her two brothers behind for college in Toronto. As she’s counting the days to her departure, she’s hanging out with her friends, Ruthie (Maddie Ziegler) and Ro (Kerrice Brooks), and making out with the girl at the coffee shop, Chelsea (Alexandria Rivera).

One night, Elliott goes with Ruthie and Ro to go camping in the woods, to enjoy some quality time before school starts — and to consume a massive bag of hallucinogenic mushrooms. While Ruthie and Ro start tripping amiably, Elliott thinks she got an ineffective dose. “That’s because we don’t tolerate drugs well,” says a voice suddenly near the campfire.

The woman talking, Park soon establishes, is Elliott’s 39-year-old self (played by Aubrey Plaza). As young Elliott tries to get a grip, she is given enough evidence to convince her that this woman is who she says she is. 

Young Elliott has a million questions — What stock should I invest in? What’s it like being older? Would it be weird if we kissed? — but older Elliott is uneasy about possibly changing the past. She tells her 18-year-old self to be nicer to Mom (Maria Dizzia), spend more time with her brothers and, above all else, if she meets a boy named Chad, she should stay far away from him.

The next morning, the ‘shroom high seemingly dissipated, Elliott wakes up to two surprises. One is that her older self has left her phone number in young Elliott’s phone. (“I can’t believe this worked,” older Elliott says when young Elliott calls for the first time.) The other surprise is when she goes skinny-dipping in the nearby watering hole, and soon encounters a boy (Percy Hynes White) — named, you guessed it, Chad.

Park perfectly deploys her co-leads, Stella and Plaza, to paint an indelible portrait of Elliott at two stages in life — at 18, when she thinks she’s got life by the tail, and at 39, when we see what life and many disappointments have done to her take-charge optimism. It’s a beautifully twinned performance, and special attention should be given to Stella, who at 20 shows that her future is even brighter than Elliott’s.

Park’s other gift is her comic timing — there are moments of sly banter and romantic-comedy awkwardness that are the funniest things I’ve seen in ages — and her ability to turn serious when called upon. There’s a late reveal that hits like a punch in the gut, and it wouldn’t have worked if Park and her talented cast hadn’t laid out the trail so cleverly and honestly.

——

‘My Old Ass’

★★★★

Opens Friday, September 29, in theaters. Rated R for language throughout, drug use and sexual material. Running time: 89 minutes.