My Old Ass avoids the usual dangers of time travel films

The trick at the center of Megan Park’s dramedy My old ass is greedy: On the evening of her 18th birthday, a teenager skips her family’s birthday party to do drugs in the woods. There she meets an adult version of herself and immediately begins to criticize herself for being so old. (The other version of her is only 39.) Watching a confident teenager and her older self playfully argue about future career prospects and her looks is funny. But woven into the Oh my god, will I be like this when I’m OLD?! “Back-and-Forward” is a haunting coming-of-age film.

Screenwriter and director Megan Park (The Fallout) uses a high-concept plot to address specific emotions and experiences while avoiding genre traps and specifics about time travel. By skimping on the sci-fi mechanics and instead focusing on the emotions generated by the situation, she lets her craft My old ass into a contemplative coming-of-age story – one that perfectly captures the feeling of that last carefree summer as a teenager before everything changes.

(Editor’s note: This piece contains light setup spoilers for My old ass.)

Maisy Stella (ABC’s musical drama Nashville) plays Elliott, a confident young woman with big dreams of leaving her family’s cranberry farm behind when she heads to the University of Toronto in the fall. While tripping on hallucinogenic mushrooms, she is visited by an older version of herself (played by Parks and Recreation‘s Aubrey Plaza), who gives her some advice about this very volatile time in her life. The two manage to maintain a correspondence via cell phone, with the older Elliott trying to guide the younger Elliott without giving too much away to a lot about the future. Her biggest warning: Stay away from Chad (Percy Hynes White), the charming boy who works on her family farm in the summer.

Throughout the film, it’s a little unclear whether time travel is actually occurring or Elliott is just experiencing a side effect of her psychedelic trip. But that blurred line means Park doesn’t have to worry about paradoxes or otherwise waste time laying out the rules of time travel. For young Elliott, chatting with her 20-year-older self is just a random, weird thing, and she goes along with it. They never really question the larger space-time consequences of the experience or worry that they might shatter reality by touching it. Which is good, because Park uses the time travel element as a way to really drive home the bittersweetness of growing up.

Young Elliott is confident in her place in the world, and Stella brings a particularly cheeky hilarity to the character. As she begins to question what she takes for granted about herself and her family, and what that means for the future, her performance is marked by palpable vulnerability. Plaza, on the other hand, perfectly captures the older, more suicidal version of the character – but one that is never too jaded or cynical. The two have some wonderful banter: it’s a testament to their chemistry that much of their interaction takes place over the phone, and yet it never feels contrived or short-changed.

The older Elliott doesn’t give her younger self any specific details about the future, and for good reason: She wants the younger Elliott to be surprised by everything life has to offer. Her vague advice—basically, slow down and spend more time with your family while you can—might be trite sayings. But because it’s so general, it could also apply to Elliott’s specific situation, like feeling too good for her family’s cranberry farm. And the older Elliott’s vague warning about the cute boy might also be a cliche—except that until she meets Chad, Elliott was only attracted to girls. It’s a refreshing take on a coming-out story, and makes the older Elliott’s warnings all the more intriguing, especially since the younger Elliott and Chad are clearly on good terms.

Beyond the time travel facility, My old assThe most immediate appeal of The 4000 is its leads and their easygoing interactions with one another. This film could have simply been a collection of banter and jokes about touching your older self’s butt. But Park uses the time-and-period elements to create a story about those unannounced final moments that we don’t know will be turning points on the road to adulthood. The younger Elliott is eager to leave it all behind and embark on her next big adventure, but the older Elliott is able to offer some perspective. At the same time, the older Elliott is able to revel in her past youth and delve into the days of her being a fearless, world-conquering teenager. My old ass is about growing up – the joys, the pains, the little moments that stay with us much longer than we think – and Park does this cleverly, using Elliott’s perspectives on both the past and the present.

My old ass will be in selected cinemas from September 13th and everywhere from September 27th.