Availability: Playing in theaters nationally; not streaming at this time, but because it was purchased at the Sundance Film Festival by Amazon/MGM, we expect streaming on Amazon Prime within a month or two. See JustWatch here for future streaming options.
“It’s a Wonderful Life” on ‘shrooms
As the credits rolled for director/writer Megan Park’s charming coming of age/rom-com-with-a-twist, a young woman left her seat to dance for the audience in the glow of the screen, her hands reaching upward in joyous celebration, a feeling repeated as she skipped through the lobby and out the doors of the Los Angeles multiplex. For that moment, this young woman was 18-year-old Elliott (Maisy Stella in her film debut)—exuberant, expressive, open to change, ready to discover who she is and to experience adulthood in all its enigmatic complexity.
She’s headed off to college. And she’s an all-in lesbian.
When we first meet Elliott, steering her motorboat into a dance of its own on Lake Muskoka in Northern Ontario (while her Mom and Dad and two brothers forlornly wait for her around the dining room table, which displays a large birthday cake), she’s already exuberant and expressive, yet also set in her ways: determined to escape a confining small town and to abandon not only her family’s cranberry farm but a family that doesn’t much interest her. She’s headed off to college. And she’s an all-in lesbian. Sex at the dock’s juice bar.
Above, Maisy Stella as the ebullient Elliott, steering her motorboat with joy.
Despite her buoyant self-confidence, Elliott has a lot to learn, and her teacher—the "twist"—is her 39-year-old self (Aubrey Plaza), appearing to Elliott in solid, touchable flesh after Elliott and her girlfriends get into the ‘shrooms around a campfire. Plaza (from TV’s “Parks and Recreation” and “The White Lotus” [2021]) is credited as Older Elliott; in our discussions, we called her Elliott II. It’s a role not unlike that of guardian angel Clarence in 1946’s “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Although Elliott’s not depressed and suicidal like George Bailey, she needs help getting her priorities in order. Older Elliott reluctantly concludes their first encounter with this ominous advice: “Stay away from Chad.”
Maisy Stella as 18-year-old Elliott, left, with Aubrey Plaza, her 39-year-old old self.
To Park’s credit, the script doesn’t let Plaza—the only well-known actor in the Canadian film—upstage Stella’s ebullient, engaging, and thoughtful Elliott I. Plaza’s Elliott II is, with the exception of one major scene and one over-the-phone minor one, played with stoic, ironic, and deadpan-funny restraint. We’ll learn, mostly in jest, that 21 years from now, the salmon are gone and no one is allowed to have three kids, but Older Elliott’s knowledge of the future doesn’t bleed into a tangible, didactic dystopia.
Older Elliott reluctantly concludes their first encounter with this ominous advice: “Stay away from Chad.”
Park’s 88-minute second feature is also restrained in presenting the underlying “serious” issues that can distract from, and clutter, comedy. Elliott’s family is represented not by her father (Alain Goulem), the beating heart of the family farm, nor her mother (Maria Dizzia), who has two small and obvious scenes. Instead, her brothers carry the familial water. The younger (Carter Trozzolo) is obsessed with Saoirse Ronan, to comic effect. The older, Max (Seth Isaac Johnson), Elliott’s personality opposite—controlled, nerdy, inward, observing—is socially aware, self-knowing, and funny.
At Elliiott II's urging, Elliott (Stella) spends time with her family, at right with her younger brother (Carter Trozzolo).
It’s the nature of the rom-com to stray into the pleasures of the predictable and prophetic and metaphoric, and Elliott’s mother’s account of the last time she sang “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” to her infant daughter crosses that line, as does Elliott’s evolving recognition of the importance of “roots” and a bit of serendipity around the University of Toronto.
This deft film refuses to be weighed down by existential questions or to wallow in treacle.
By and large, however, this deft film refuses to be weighed down by existential questions or to wallow in treacle, as when Elliott, having asked Max whether he will miss her, gets a firm “No.” Artful restraint (though with echoes of 2020’s “Palm Springs” with Andy Samberg) and excellent acting produce a throwback to “ordinary” films of the sort that have recently been in short supply. “My Old Ass” isn’t a great film or even an important one; it doesn’t break new ground cinematically or—except for that “twist”—story-wise. It’s just and simply totally entertaining, good for out-loud laughs and, yes, the “rom” after the “com”: tears.
Above, the three girlfriends drink 'shroom-laden tea on their rollicking camping trip, the summer before college. Left to right, Ro (Kerrice Brooks), Elliott (Stella),
and Ruthie (Maddie Ziegler).
He says: The title Gods were on break.
She says: Bring on the Canadians!
Right, Elliott (Stella) spending time (though on her phone) with her brother Max, a wry, aware Seth Isaac Johnson.
Date: 2024
Director: Megan Park`
Starring: Aubrey Plaza, Maisy Stella, Percy Hynes White, Seth Isaac Johnson, Carter Trozzolo, Maria Dizzia, Alain Goulem, Kerrice Brooks, Maddie Ziegler, Seth Isaac Johnson
Runtime: 88 minutes
Country: Canada
Languages: English
Other Awards: Variety “Breakthrough Award” for Stella at Sundance. No others to date.
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