Minor spoilers ahead. Megan Park didn’t set out to make movies that are a commentary on the Gen Z experience. Instead, the writer-director of 2021’s The Fallout and the newly-released My Old Ass just wanted to — like many filmmakers before her — make coming-of-age movies about the reality of being a young person today; first as it pertains to rampant gun violence and US school shootings, and more recently to getting older and leaving home. “I do enjoy trying to crack into the Gen Z space, the YA space, in the most authentic way possible,” Park tells Refinery29, “because I think a lot of people just don’t give them enough credit and try to force feed [stories for them]. ”
Which is far from the case when it comes to My Old Ass. The movie follows 18-year-old Elliott (Maisy Stella) who, having grown up on her family’s cranberry farm in Canada’s cottage country, is about to set off to the big city (in this case Toronto’s University of Toronto) for her first year of university. And the start of the school year couldn’t come fast enough. That is until a mushroom trip with her BFFs introduces Elliott to the 39-year-old version of herself (Aubrey Plaza), or in her words, “my old ass.”
While the film starts with a seemingly self-involved Younger Elliott, like many 18-year-olds before her, only concerned with getting high, spending time with her friends, and generally avoiding her family (as Elliott’s brother tells her, “All you talk about is leaving, anyways”), that’s not all there is to her. What makes My Old Ass so special — aside from the time traveling element, of course — is that the film celebrates the best qualities of today’s young generation, specifically their curiosity, adaptability, constant yearning for more, and authenticity to their feelings.
Which to be clear, is not something all coming-of-age movies — or people IRL — do. Gen Z seems to have a bad reputation these days: for being too self-involved, having short attention spans, wanting too much (you know, like a planet that’s actually livable and still has salmon), and being too individualistic. But this phenomenon isn’t unique to this generation. Every new kid-on-the-demographic-block has caught flak from those that came before. Millennials were thought of as lazy, more concerned with their next avocado toast than their careers; Gen X was seen as apathetic and cynical, and Boomers were (and kind of still are), seen as selfish, ruining the planet for the rest of us.
Coming-of-age movies are hardly unique to Gen Z too. “It’s not really just Gen Z,” Maisy Stella confirms. “In a lot of films, the way to portray a teenager is angsty, [saying] ‘mom get out of my room.’” The now-20-year-old singer was 18 when she filmed the movie, meaning she could put herself pretty seamlessly into Elliott’s shoes and experience and is similarly confused about the hate her generation and young people in general receive. This usual take on Gen Z is what drew Stella to the movie in the first place. “I think Megan’s writing gives young people a lot more credit,” she says.
As Younger Elliott, Stella’s performance does, too, adding a level of depth and relatability to a character who might have come across as angst-ridden and one-note in any other movie. (FYI, for Stella, being angsty towards your mom only to have the realization that “she’s just a girl,” living life for the first time isn’t specific to Gen Z, but rather a teenage right-of-passage).
@refinery29 We’d be smitten with #ConnieBritton and #AubreyPlaza too! We catch up with #MaisyStella at the #MyOldAss premiere 💖 @Alexa Rhodes ♬ original sound – Refinery29
For all the characteristics that could be taken as negative, Stella and Park present them as positive. Elliott’s wild and carefree nature as she takes shrooms and accidentally drives her boat into docks? Translates into a young woman who isn’t afraid of adventure. Her desire to leave her hometown? Becomes a fierce appreciation of her limited time with her family. And her inability to *really* listen to the advice Older Elliott gives her about not pursuing a relationship with Chad (Percy Hynes White) who’s helping out on the family farm? Signals a curiosity and desire to make decisions for herself.
Despite how stubborn they may be portrayed as, Gen Z are adaptable and open to self-reflection and change. We see this firsthand in Younger Elliott, as she — influenced by Older Elliott’s advice — begins to spend more time with her parents and younger brothers. Although initially upset at the news that her family is selling the farm after she leaves for college, Elliott soon realizes her selfish desire to keep her childhood home is misplaced; her family wants to move forward. And, as opposed to pushing back, she eventually accepts this reality and embraces the change.
It’s exactly these characteristics that older heads could learn from. When Younger Elliott meets her older self, the latter is much more reserved and closed off, especially when it comes to love and opening herself up to new experiences. There’s, of course, a reason for this. A lot has happened in the 20 years since that last summer at home as viewers find out through phone calls between the Elliotts that give us a peek into the future, which apparently includes the complete depletion of salmon. (Park says it’s a “tongue-in-cheek” allusion to where the world is going).
More seriously though, there’s a specific kind of fear that comes from knowing what pain and hardships life will throw at you. But as Younger Elliott tells her old ass, there’s strength and bravery that only comes from being a young person who’s curious about the world and unafraid to throw themselves into it — even if they know full well they might get hurt. As Younger Elliott says, “If you weren’t young and dumb you’d never fucking be brave enough to do anything. If you knew how shitty and unfair life would be, you’d never leave your house.” It’s a stark moment of realization for Older Elliott, and for viewers of all ages, who might find themselves in a similar mindset whether it comes to dating, careers, and putting themselves out there.
“In a weird way, it’s Older Elliott’s lesson at the end of the day,” Park says. The lesson is one Park herself — who’s closer to Older Elliott in age — learned while writing the movie and immersing herself in the world of My Old Ass. “You have to go through it all. Your life is going to happen and … ultimately, at the end of the day, you have to be 18 and you have to go through all that stuff and experience it the way that it happens,” Park says. “Would you really change it all?”
For Younger Elliott, and eventually Older Elliott, the answer is no. Because the good and the bad is what makes life just that and worth experiencing. It’s a message that only Gen Z can convey due to a unique and specific level of chaos the generation has been thrown into by virtue of the tumultuous (aka dumpster fire) of a time they’re currently growing up in. “I think Gen Zers are much more worldly and aware than I certainly was at that age,” Park says. “They’ve had to experience a lot, they’ve had to face a lot more hard truths than my generation did much sooner in life so there’s an awareness.”
An awareness and, as Younger Elliott exhibits to her older self, an ability to push forward in spite of it. To keep on living. “[Older Elliott] is reminded of all the things she once knew,” Stella adds. “Because, taking things for granted and being in the moment, those are all important, but also [important is] not limiting yourself and still being brave and open and willing to do things that are scary.”
It’s a message that Younger Elliott would have cringed at the start of My Old Ass (the cheesiness!), but by the end, has — along with her older self — fully embraced. Now, that’s growth.
My Old Ass is in theaters September 13.
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