"My Old Ass" is a movie about a very specific time in life. Elliott (Maisy Stella) is celebrating her eighteenth birthday by going camping with some friends. She takes some hallucinogenic mushrooms, and suddenly her thirty nine-year-old self (Aubrey Plaza) is having a conversation with her. Older Elliott offers some advice, like staying away from the cute guy, Chad (Percy Hynes White), who is working for the summer at her parents' cranberry farm, and spending more time with her family before she goes off to college in a few weeks.
Written and directed by Megan Park, "My Old Ass" is a movie that snuck up on me. It's incredibly sincere, despite the fantasy premise and lighthearted characters. The grown-up Elliott drops a few hints about the future, but in a sly way where you can't tell if she's joking or not. Plaza's been in a few projects lately that haven't had the best idea of what to do with her, but she's perfect as the untrustworthy mentor figure here. After the mushroom trip, teenage Elliott discovers she can still talk to her older version on the phone, because she added her number to Elliott's phone while Elliott was asleep, under "My Old Ass." The two develop a relationship that initially seems one-sided, but becomes wonderfully symbiotic and mutually helpful. Maisy Stella carries the film with ease, and I look forward to anything she wants to do next.
There's a lot of nostalgia in "My Old Ass," despite it taking place in the present day, in Southern Ontario. Park seems to have constructed her ideal of what her teenage years could have been like. Elliott is a lesbian with a supportive family and friends, looking forward to striking out on her own. There's a great little romance in the mix, with one of the silliest, most winning fantasy sequences I've seen on film in a long time. The pacing is very unhurried, and the sunny visuals are lovely. Elliott's family lives in a lakeside community where everyone seems to get around by boat, and we see her constantly surrounded by nature. Older Elliott urges her younger self to enjoy her time there while she can, and the audience should take that advice as well.
On to "Your Monster," which is also about a young woman who finds herself talking to a possibly imaginary aspect of herself. Melissa Barrera stars as Laura, an acting hopeful whose career trajectory was interrupted by getting cancer. Her boyfriend Jacob (Edmund Donavan) left her, and the musical they worked on together, with the expectation that Laura would play the lead role, is being produced without her. Shattered by the breakup and recovering from surgery, Laura finds a literal monster (Tommy Dewey) living in her closet. He's a grump at first, and wants her to leave, but eventually the two become friendly and maybe something more.
Caroline Lindy wrote and directed "Your Monster," which turns out to be a unique combination of breakup movie and putting-on-a-show movie. Laura decides she wants to be part of the musical, and crashes the auditions with unexpected results. Barrera is the main event here, handily navigating the toxic relationship and rom-com tropes, and a few Broadway-style song numbers too. She's a charming, lovable presence, even when she's deep in the breakup funk, crying through mountains of tissues. I found the monster romance an interesting idea, but underbaked. The visual of this quasi-werewolf guy cuddling with Melissa Berrera and sharing her Chinese takeout is fine, and the banter is cute, but I was hoping for a little more fleshing out of the monster as an actual character. I don't feel like I had enough time with him to get to know him as well as I should have.
"Your Monster" has some good ideas and takes its story to some unexpected places. I like the mix of multiple genres and the particular tone - very light and comedic, with just a few touches of horror and fantasy in the right places. However, I wish the movie and its central metaphor could have given me a little more to chew on. It's a fun watch with a great ending, but not very filling.
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