Assuredly a Good Movie: My Old Ass

My Old Ass (2024) is the newest addition to the lesbian coming-of-age subgenre that has become more and more popular in the past five years, with movies like Booksmart (2019), The Half of It (2020), and Bottoms (2023). The film features incredibly endearing characters, funny jokes, and beautiful scenery, making it enthralling and a joy to watch. 

My Old Ass follows Elliot (Maisy Stella) through her last 22 days at her Canadian family home—a cranberry farm—before going to college. The film opens on her birthday, which Elliot celebrates by hooking up with her crush and doing mushrooms while her family waits for her at the dinner table with a homemade cake. As she is tripping out in the woods, Elliot meets her older self, portrayed by Aubrey Plaza, who gives her advice to appreciate her family more and to stay away from the mysterious Chad (Percy Hynes White). Younger Elliot tries to follow her older self’s advice, successfully doing so until she meets this elusive Chad. 

From all of the trailers and promotional materials, it seemed like Plaza would have a much bigger role in the film than she actually does; she’s only physically present for two scenes in the entire movie. This doesn’t diminish the quality, though, because Stella’s acting is so authentic that the movie already has plenty of heart. Stella plays Elliot like she has lived as the character for years, portraying all of the bravado and insecurities of a seemingly confident teenager. She jokes with friends Ruthie (Maddie Ziegler) and Ro (Kerrice Brooks) naturally and overall makes viewers fall in love with a character who, if done wrong, could have come across as annoying and full of herself. 

Elliot appears to have gotten what she wants in every part of her life. She has dated every girl in town, gotten into a college in the city, and has a family that loves her, but she doesn’t seem to appreciate any of it and always wants more. Even without her friends making fun of her for sleeping around, it is clear from her stereotypical fashion choices that Elliot has only ever dated women. She wears only jorts and backwards caps for the entire movie and even has a fantasy sequence where she performs “One Less Lonely Girl” as Justin Bieber, with girls falling all over her. 

But after she meets Chad, it comes into question whether she might actually be the “Lonely Girl.” Despite future Elliot’s warnings, she can’t resist the charms of Chad, and White’s acting makes him so loveable that it's difficult to blame her. Their relationship is fun to watch as it blossoms, with Chad fixing Elliot’s banged-up old boat, coming to breakfast with the family, and giving great life advice, but the thing that could deter viewers from enjoying their relationship is the fact that Chad is a man. The intention behind having Chad as the main love interest could have been to show how Elliot is still discovering herself and her sexuality, but his masculinity is truly unnecessary. It takes the representation of the queer community and downplays it because, even if Elliot likes girls, of course the heteronormative person she belongs with is a man. This poses the question of whether Hollywood is ready to tell queer stories without having those stories be entirely about someone’s queerness. While Elliot dating a man doesn’t take away from her attraction to women—which is a topic that is discussed gracefully in the movie—it still feels unnecessary to the plot to even have him be male. 

Though the plot centers on Elliot’s relationship with Chad, it’s Elliot’s relationship with herself that really matters. The scenes between Plaza and Stella commandeer the movie, especially through the theme of Elliot’s self-exploration present in the film through both stages of her life. Viewers watch as Elliot discovers her values both as an adult and as a teenager, and it gives space for them to think about their own. 

It’s never explained how Older Elliot and Younger Elliot are able to communicate through time. They contact each other both with drugs and without, both on the phone and in person, and that lack of exposition actually heightens the movie. Most movies with this kind of sci-fi premise spend way too much screen time rationalizing time travel, and that explanation almost never works, so keeping it at a 90-minute run time with some plot holes makes it a better experience to watch overall. This also leaves time for a nostalgic emphasis on what people lose as they grow up. The cinematography shines a light on climate change by pairing beautiful shots of Canadian scenery with bleak descriptions from Plaza about the environmental state of the future. This illustrates the theme of appreciation for nature and family for what they are because they might not be there forever. At the beginning of the film, Elliot doesn’t think twice about the beautiful lake she drives her boat on or the island she camps on with her friends, but knowing all of that could go away in her lifetime makes her grateful, motivating viewers to recognize similar feelings. Nobody wants to see the world go up in flames like Plaza describes, so viewers leave the film wanting to appreciate what they have and to create change in order to keep it. 

This idea of appreciation is the driving force of the movie, and it’s also really important to think about as a teenager because it is so easy to go through life only thinking about oneself. From family to the world around you, this movie really motivates viewers to take a minute of gratitude for everything they have been given. While it is hard to see the world while one is struggling through it, there is beauty in every moment. Assuredly, My Old Ass is a beautiful, funny, and poignant film that is worth a watch.