{"id":4185,"date":"2024-09-27T13:48:01","date_gmt":"2024-09-27T13:48:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=4185"},"modified":"2024-10-19T21:46:07","modified_gmt":"2024-10-20T01:46:07","slug":"my-old-ass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/09\/27\/my-old-ass\/","title":{"rendered":"My Old Ass"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"My Old Ass<\/strong> (2024)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 MGM\/Comedy-Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 88 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language throughout, drug use, sexual material)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Megan Park\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Megan Park\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Tyler Hilton and Jaco Caraco\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Kristen Correll\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: September 27, 2024 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Maisy Stella, Aubrey Plaza, Percy Hynes White, Maddie Ziegler, Kerrice Brooks, Maria Dizzia, Alain Goulem, Seth Isaac Johnson, Carter Trozzolo, Alexandria Rivera.<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: *** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0I called it with Christina Ricci, Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson. They all successfully made the transition from child star to adult actress. I predict the same for Maisy Stella, the star of the new comedy-drama My Old Ass<\/strong>. She hasn\u2019t done too much so far. She\u2019s primarily known for playing one of the Conrad sisters (opposite real-life sis Lennon) on the TV series Nashville. I had a feeling about her at the time, a feeling that\u2019s now been confirmed by her incredible feature film debut.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Stella plays Elliott, an Ontario farm girl who\u2019s looking forward to moving to the big city to start university in a few weeks. She decides to spend her 18th<\/sup> birthday with her two besties Ro (Brooks) and Ruthie (dancer Ziegler) camping overnight in the woods. They\u2019re not there to enjoy nature though. The plan is to do hallucinogenic mushrooms. That\u2019s where My Old Ass<\/strong> gets kind of trippy.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Before I get into what happens next, let me ask you this. It\u2019s a question that frequently appears in memes on FaceBook. If you could meet your 18YO self, what advice would you give? Now let\u2019s flip the question. If you could meet your older self, what would you ask? What would you want to know about your future? That\u2019s the premise of My Old Ass<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0While under the influence, Elliott encounters her 39YO self (Plaza, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) sitting beside her. She just appears out of nowhere. After the initial shock wears off, she has a ton of questions about what the future holds for her. Older Elliott refuses to divulge too much. The only advice she offers her younger self is to stay away from guys named Chad.<\/p>\n

\u00a0When she comes off her high, younger Elliott is confused. She doesn\u2019t know anybody named Chad (yet) and besides, she\u2019s gay. When she returns home, she meets the new summer farm hand, a young man named….. you guessed it, Chad (White, Wednesday). Although he seems nice and harmless, younger Elliott follows her older self\u2019s advice and actively avoids him…. for a little while anyway. It isn\u2019t long before she can no longer deny her attraction to Chad. What\u2019s a girl to do?<\/p>\n

\u00a0The Chad thing isn\u2019t the only advice older Elliott dispenses. She also tells the headstrong teen not to take her family for granted. They might be annoying, but they\u2019re there for her. Now is the time to start appreciating them. Younger Elliott takes that advice. She makes an effort to get closer to her mother (Dizzia, Martha Marcy May Marlene) and younger brothers, golf aficionado Max (Johnson, The Killing) and likely gay Spencer (Trozzolo).<\/p>\n

\u00a0Ever since the pandemic hit, I haven\u2019t gone to my favorite arthouse theater in the city. It\u2019s been almost five years since I set foot in the Ritz 5. I miss seeing independent films like My Old Ass<\/strong>. They\u2019re usually better than mainstream studio movies. That\u2019s certainly true in this case. Written and directed by actress Megan Park (The Secret Life of the American Teenager), it\u2019s one of the best films I\u2019ve seen in the past few weeks (along with the brilliant body horror The Substance). She deftly blends magical realism with a compelling coming-of-age story. Think of it as a more mature version of 13 Going on 30 without the body-swap angle. Here we have a bright but inexperienced girl about to navigate life on her own for the first time. She\u2019s always been independent and sure of herself. Now she\u2019s not so sure. Meeting her older self is something of an eye-opener. In the role, Stella delivers a pitch perfect performance. She makes her character believable in the midst of all the unbelievability.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Plaza is generally known for her comedic roles like April on the series Parks and Recreation. She has shown she\u2019s equally adept at more dramatic roles in films like Ingrid Goes West and Emily the Criminal. She absolutely nails it in My Old Ass<\/strong>. She\u2019s funny when she needs to be and serious when she has to be. You see, older Elliott isn\u2019t the only one with wise advice. She hasn\u2019t had the most idyllic life. You can see she\u2019s not happy. Younger Elliott has a lesson or two to teach her. Plaza has this one scene near the end that\u2019s legitimately heartbreaking. Her tears feel real. What a performance!<\/p>\n

\u00a0What\u2019s interesting about My Old Ass<\/strong> is that it doesn\u2019t waste time overexplaining itself. Some things, like younger Elliott\u2019s ability to call and text her older self, remain a mystery. It would take some of the magic out of the story. At the same time, it stays grounded in realism thanks to Park\u2019s down-to-earth approach to the material. Elliott, both incarnations, is as authentic as they come. Also, Park creates a vivid sense of place with the gorgeous Canadian scenery. That lake is simply beautiful.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I doubt My Old Ass<\/strong> will break any box office records. I truly hope the opposite proves to be true. This is a film that deserves to be discovered. It\u2019s smart, insightful and funny. It benefits from two fantastic lead performances by two talented actresses, one new and one more seasoned. I hope we\u2019re looking at a sleeper hit with My Old Ass<\/strong>.\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My Old Ass (2024)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 MGM\/Comedy-Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 88 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language throughout, drug use, sexual material)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Megan Park\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Megan Park\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Tyler Hilton and Jaco Caraco\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Kristen Correll\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: September 27, 2024 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Maisy Stella, Aubrey Plaza, Percy Hynes White, Maddie Ziegler, Kerrice Brooks, Maria Dizzia, Alain Goulem, Seth Isaac […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5100,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/My-Old-Ass-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4185"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5101,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4185\/revisions\/5101"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}