FILM REVIEW
MY OLD ASS
Rated R
88 Minutes
Released September 13th
My Old Ass premiered at Sundance 2024 to rave reviews, a genuinely touching film about coming-of-age, in a reverse trajectory. The curiosity about what our older self could impart to our younger self is universal, as is the momentous transition time between high school and college or work, which never occurs suddenly, but rather starts around junior year, as students start to feel the end of their school years approaching. The idea for the story came to writer/director Megan Park as she was quarantined during the pandemic, in her childhood bedroom at her parents’ house. She says, “It just made me super emotional, thinking about what I would tell my younger self” who once lived in that same room. The film was shot in Muskoka, Ontario, Canada, near the place where both Park and her star, Maisy Stella, grew up. Even though this film is written and directed by a woman, the concept is universal. It’s about the human condition.
Park and Stella are the about same ages as the two main characters – 38 and 20. Park, whose career has moved from actress to writer and director, has created a beautiful movie here. The camera work by cinematographer Kristen Correll is exceptional. The faces are lit perfectly, so that you can see the dynamics of their emotions, so extraordinarily displayed by the cast. Park has done a wonderful job directing her actors and working with her editors, to tell a story that seems to flow naturally with a rhythm that never gets stuck or meanders out of place. Getting into the characters’ skins was made easy by actors who are superb at their craft, and intensely interesting to watch. The camera moves over the actors’ faces and body language beautifully, showing us details we wouldn’t normally notice. The rich and nostalgic environment is also captured and brought front and center.
Park and Stella grew up about an hour apart from each other in rural Ontario, Canada, but didn’t know one another. Park’s friends were actors in a TV series that was shot near her home, but her parents didn’t want her to be part of that business. So of course, as soon as she graduated high school, Park won a role in the series, The Secret Life of the American Teenager, opposite Shailene Woodley. She liked entertainment but did not like being an actor, so her friends encouraged her to write. In 2021 The Fallout, starring Jenna Ortega, was her directorial debut. Stella had auditioned for The Fallout but wasn’t right for the role. Park loved her work, however, and assured Stella they would work together soon.
Both Stella and Percy Hynes White, who plays “Chad,” have been actors since childhood. Stella wrote and recorded music with her sister Lennon as a teen. Their parents are musicians. The sisters were cast on the series Nashville starring Connie Britton (2012-2018). Hynes White is as charming and fascinating as “Chad.” He is from St. Johns, Newfoundland, is now 23, and has been working in film and TV since the age of 2. Aubrey Plaza, in the title role of “My Old Ass,” achieves the perfect nostalgic yearning and cynicism about life, to represent the grown-up version of Stella’s character, “Maisie.”
The crazy things these characters do are genuine, and in the end, you can see that our past and our present both make us who we are. Stella says she thought she had everything figured out but now realizes that she did not. Of this movie, she says “It’s so fun and happy, and it’s a comedy and all these things, but it feels weighted to me.” The question is, who is really the teacher, “Old Ass” or “Young Ass?”
I think in the end, we can say it’s both.
Kathryn Whitney Boole has spent most of her life in the entertainment industry, which has been the backdrop for remarkable adventures with extraordinary people. She is a Talent Manager with Studio Talent Group in Santa Monica. kboole@gmail.com
