Teresa in the Wild! / 'My Old Ass'

Even as I create work through Pomonok Entertainment, I'm still very much a freelance writer and pop culture critic out in the world. If you love my recommendations here, and you want to check out some of my other work out in the wild, here's where you can go!

THE MARY SUE

I've been writing for pop culture website The Mary Sue on and off since 2015, first as an Associate Editor for three years, and now as a contributing writer. I've written news items; done interviews with actors and creators; reviewed TV, film, books, and comics; and written longer opinion pieces about media and pop culture through an intersectional feminist lens. You can check out everything I've ever written on MY AUTHOR PAGE on the site.

THE CLUBHOUSE (the FREE TMS newsletter)

I've recently been given the task of writing and curating TMS' free, weekly newsletter, which I've titled The Clubhouse in the hopes of using it, in part, to strengthen a tight-knit community among our readers. The first issue goes out FRIDAY 8/30, and will feature original, exclusive pieces written by yours truly!

If you want to keep up, SUBSCRIBE HERE!

IN-THE-MOMENT REVIEWS

I love reviewing things** the moment after I finish it to capture how the film, show, book, or play made me feel immediately after experiencing it. Obviously, when I write "real" reviews, it's after I've given the piece some deeper thought. But there's something valuable about how something makes you feel in the moment; about your gut reaction to a thing when it ends.

So, I've been using TikTok for this, posting film and book reviews (for now) starting back in October 2023 when I did my first "Big Baby Horror Fest" (where I, a former "big baby" about horror movies watched 31 horror movies in 31 days for Spooky Season and came to love and respect the genre).

Wanna keep up with those? FOLLOW ME ON TIKTOK HERE!

** by the way, I used to do "Drunk Reviews" on Instagram, which was a lot of fun, and I miss doing them. I can't drink the way I used to thanks to my gastric bypass surgery, but I might start doing high reviews... we'll see!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Love and hugs,

Teresa

OTHER POMONOK NEWS:

• As we mentioned last week, an advance reading copy of the script for Teresa's film directorial debut, Happy Birthday Harold!, will be available to those who subscribe to the paid Pomonok Pictures tier of our newsletter. A PDF of the finished script will be sent your way, along with updates on the film's progress! It will be available next week, so consider subscribing TODAY so you don't miss out!
• Our first interactive, text-based game, ROBOT GIRL, continues humming along, and we've hired an artist to do character portraits for the game, and are in talks with another artist to do our backgrounds! While ROBOT GIRL is first and foremost a text-based experience, we're hoping to bring visual elements to the story, and are considering creating it as a visual novel. Our goal remains to finish ROBOT GIRL PART 1: Teenage Dream by December and release it on Steam just in time for the winter holidays! If you'd like to be in on our behind-the-scenes process, be one of our advance play-testers, and guarantee yourself a copy when Part 1 is released, consider subscribing to the paid Pomonok Games tier of our newsletter!

POMONOK APPROVED: FILM

Written and directed by Megan Park, My Old Ass (Rated R, Amazon MGM Studios) tells the story of a girl named Elliott (Maisy Stella) who celebrates her 18th birthday by doing shrooms in the woods with her friends.

When Elliott gets high, she’s visited by her 39-year-old self (Aubrey Plaza), and through the magic of movies (and Elliott’s smartphone), they’re able to continue communicating long after Elliott sobers up.

The film is genuinely laugh-out-loud funny, but also deeply poignant with moments that will make you cry. Not only that, but tells the kind of queer coming-of-age story that is all-too-rare in the Hollywood film canon: the story of a bi/pansexual young woman who starts the film as unabashedly queer only to develop romantic feelings for–shocker of shockers–a guy!

But Elliott's self-discovery isn't relegated to her sexuality. Elliott learns how important time is, and how not to waste it; how not to take her family for granted and show them the appreciation she genuinely feels, but is too afraid to show; and how to be brave enough to be vulnerable in general, in all aspects of her life. What's wonderful is that Elliott at 18 and Elliott at 39 each have wisdom to offer the other about how to experience life fully and meaningfully, and their relationship (really, Elliott's relationship with herself) is the heart of a unique and distinctly feminine coming-of-age tale.

While the film's big name is Plaza, and she gives an awesome, hilarious, and heartfelt performance as always, Stella's performance is the stand-out. You might recognize Stella as the younger Conrad sister, Daphne, on the hit ABC drama, Nashville. Now 20, Stella has truly come into her own as an actor and her performance as Elliott is nuanced, funny, brash, and brave. Stella clearly has the facility with vulnerability that Elliott does not, and she uses that to deliver a character that people of all ages will relate to.

The phrase "instant classic" gets thrown around a lot, but this film genuinely qualifies. My Old Ass is a beautiful little nugget of a film, and deserves as many eyes on it as possible.

My Old Ass arrives in select theaters September 13.

Have a question or a comment for us? Reply to this email, or email us directly at teampomonok@gmail.com! See you next week!