Maisy Stella Archives – CULTURE MIX

December 11, 2024

by Carla Hay

“Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties: The Bubbles and the Shitrockers Story”

Directed by Charlie Lightening

Culture Representation: Taking place in various parts of Canada and Europe, the comedy film “Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties: The Bubbles and the Shitrockers Story” (the fourth movie based on the “Trailer Park Boys” TV comedy series) features an all-white cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A bumbling Canadian country music band called the Shitrockers get into all sorts of silly trouble while on a European tour with American actor/musician Billy Bob Thornton and his rock band the Boxmasters.

Culture Audience: “Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties: The Bubbles and the Shitrockers Story” will appeal mainly to people who are “Trailer Park Boys” fans, because everyone else will find this cinematic junk very hard to take.

Patrick Roach and Mike Smith in “Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties: The Bubbles and the Shitrockers Story” (Photo courtesy of Blue Fox Entertainment)

“Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties: The Bubbles and the Shitrockers Story” collapses under the weight of its stupidity. This putrid comedy is the “Trailer Park Boys” stars’ weak attempt to be like the 1984 mockumentary “This Is Spinal Tap,” but “Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties” is as painfully unfunny as getting a spinal tap. Avoid at all costs. Fans of the TV comedy series “Trailer Park Boys” will no doubt love this dumpster movie, but it’s hard to imagine “Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties” being able to win over many new fans.

Directed by Charlie Lightening and written by Mike Smith, “Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties” has a flimsy plot that shows no imagination and is vastly inferior to what many people can see for free on amateur comedy channels. What’s even more annoying is the fact that what could have been a 30-minute TV episode is stretched into a too-long 111-minute, time-wasting, boring movie that’s polluted with too many bad jokes and an overload of irritating characters. It’s truly low-key torture to watch all of “Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties,” because you can almost feel brain cells rotting from watching this garbage.

“Trailer Park Boys” is a mockumentary comedy series about the wacky and frequently intoxicated residents and associates of the fictional Sunnyvale Trailer Park in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. “Trailer Park Boys” began as a series on Canada’s Showcase network from 2001 to 2007. The series was revived on Netflix from 2014 to 2018. In its current form, “Trailer Park Boys” can be seen on production company SwearNet’s online platforms. “Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties” is the fourth “Trailer Park Boys” spinoff movie, after 2006’s “Trailer Park Boys: The Movie,” 2009’s “Trailer Park Boys: Countdown to Liquor Day” and 2014’s “Trailer Park Boys: Don’t Legalize It.”

In “Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties,” Sunnyvale Trailer Park resident Bubbles (played by Smith), a bespectacled dimwit, wants to enter a songwriting contest, so he forms a country music band, which he names the Shitrockers. Bubbles says his father originally came up with the name Shitrockers. Bubbles is the band’s lead singer/guitarist, and he holds auditions to find other band members. “Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties” is a reference to the fact that Bubbles likes cats.

Bubbles’ two best friends—emotionally stunted Ricky (played by Robb Wells) and schemer Julian (played by John Paul “JP” Tremblay)—get involved in these shenanigans, of course. Ricky is skeptical that Bubbles can make a success out of the Shitrockers. The other band members are bass player Wayland (played by Brad Stella), guitarist Dwight (played by Zach Selwyn), guitarist Slug (played by Peter Leseprance), drummer Travis (played by Andy Gallant) and pedal steel guitarist Willie (played by Dale Murray), who all have generically anonymous personalities in the movie.

The Shitrockers have songs such as “Home Is Where Your Shit Is” and “Liquor and Whores” and are unsurprsingly a terrible band. They enlist Sunnyvale Trailer Park assistant manager Randy (played by Patrick Roach), another idiot, to be the band’s tour manager. Randy (who likes to walk around topless as often as possible) is openly gay. His sexuality is the butt of many unamusing jokes in “Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties.”

Somehow, the Shitrockers end up in Europe, where they meet actor/musician Billy Bob Thronton (playing a version of himself), who invites the Shitrockers to join Thronton and his band the Boxrockers on the Boxrockers’ European tour. (“Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties” was filmed on location in Nova Scotia and the European cities of Prague, Berlin, Amsterdam, Liverpool, Glasgow, and London.) Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood (also playing a version of himself) is a friend of Thornton’s, so Wood is also on this tour. Wood shares top billing for the movie, but his screen time is less than 15 minutes.

Many ridiculous and moronic antics ensue on the tour—much of it already done in other comedies about touring musicians, such as unfriendly audiences, things that get stolen while traveling, someone in the touring entourage who gets lost/goes missing, and the band getting stuck in certain places while trying to get to the next concert gig. Here’s an example of what “Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties” tries to pass off as comedy: The first time that Billy Bob and Ronnie invite the Bubbles and his friends to party with them, Bubbles doesn’t go because he’s gotten so nervous, he’s urinated on himself. When they are in Liverpool, England (world-famous for being the hometown of the Beatles), Randy thinks the biggest band to come out of Liverpool is Elvis Presley’s band.

It goes on and on like this for the duration of this messy and rotten movie, which managed to get cameos from Guns N’Roses bass player Duff McKagan, actor Martin Freeman, singer Eric Burdon (former lead singer of the Animals), Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen, and former “Nashville” actresses/singers Maisy Stella and Lennon Stella—all portraying themselves. Irish actor Robert Sheehan (formerly of Netflix’s “The Umbrella Academy”) also has a cameo as an unnamed horny date for Randy. The cast members portraying themselves don’t do anything special. And all the performances from the principal cast members are simply atrocious.

As bad as the movie’s plot is to endure, you need a special type of stamina to listen to Smith’s whiny voice for the entire duration of this obnoxious film. His voice is the very definition of “grating.” Ultimately, the movie’s biggest problem is the story, which is just irredeemably awful. The horrible screenplay for “Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties” would’ve been put to better use as lining for a kittie litter box.

Blue Fox Entertainment released “Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties: The Bubbles and the Shitrockers Story” in select U.S. cinemas on December 6, 2024.

September 13, 2024

by Carla Hay

“My Old Ass”

Directed by Megan Park

Culture Representation: Taking place in the Muskoka Lakes area of Canada’s Ontario province, the comedy/drama film “My Old Ass” features a predominantly white group of people (with a few black people) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: In the summer before she goes away to college, a restless teen takes psychedelic mushrooms on her 18-year-old birthday and meets her 39-year-old self, who gives her some advice that the teen is reluctant to take.

Culture Audience: “My Old Ass” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and well-acted stories about growing pains in young adulthood.

Kerrice Brooks, Maisy Stella, and Maddie Ziegler in “My Old Ass” (Photo courtesy of Amazon Content Services)

“My Old Ass” capably blends comedy, drama and fantasy in this sarcastically sweet coming-of-age story about an 18-year-old communicating with a manifestation of her 39-year-old self. Maisy Stella gives a standout performance as a teen on an identity quest. The movie isn’t for everyone but it will find appeal with open-minded people who aren’t offended by how obscene cursing, casual sex and illegal drug use are presented as part of a teenager’s life.

Written and directed by Megan Park, “My Old Ass” had its world premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. The tone of the movie is much lighter than 2022’s “The Fallout,” Park’s feature-film directorial debut about teenagers dealing with the aftermath of a mass-murder shooting at their school. Park has a knack for casting very talented people in the roles that are right for them because they inhabit their roles in authentic ways. “My Old Ass” is Stella’s impressive feature-film debut after having roles in television, such as the TV series “Nashville.”

“My Old Ass” takes place during a summer in an unnamed city in the Muskoka Lakes area of Ontario, Canada, where the movie was filmed on location. Main character Elliott (played by Stella) lives on a cranberry farm owned by her parents Tom (played by Al Goulem) and Kathy (played by Maria Dizzia), who are very loving and supportive of each other and their three children. Elliott is the middle child.

Elliott’s older brother Max (played by Seth Isaac Johnson) is about 19 or 20. He has chosen to be in the family business of cranberry farming. Max and Elliott have an emotionally distant relationship because they are almost polar opposites of each other. Max is introverted and straight-laced. At one point in the movie, Max says to Elliott: “I’m everything you hate. I like farming. I like sports. I hate [the TV series] ‘Euphoria.'”

The younger brother of Max and Elliott is Spencer (played by Carter Trozzolo), who is about 10 or 11 years old. Carter is nice but doesn’t have much of a personality. Elliott definitely likes Spencer more than she likes Max. Still, Elliott doesn’t really hang out with her brothers very much. Elliott also tells anyone who will listen that she can’t wait to move away from this cranberry farm and live her life in the big city of Toronto. In the meantime, Elliott spends a lot of time cruising on a motorboat in a lake.

In the beginning of the movie, Elliott will be leaving in 22 days for her freshman year at the University of Toronto. Also in the beginning of the movie, Elliott identifies as a lesbian, but that will change when she falls for a guy about a year or two older than she is. Elliott has a flirtation with a teenage woman named Chelsea (played by Alexandria Rivera), who’s about the same age, and the flirtation turns into a sexual fling.

Elliott’s two best friends are also free spirits: Ruthie (played by Maddie Ziegler) is tactful and a romantic at heart. Ro (played by Kerrice Brooks) is more outspoken and pragmatic. For Elliott’s 18th birthday, the three pals plan to go camping overnight in the woods and take psychedelic mushrooms that were purchased by Ro. Elliott doesn’t bother to tell her family about these camping plans, so there’s a scene of Elliott’s family waiting forlornly at their dining table with a birthday cake that Elliott never sees on her birthday.

While high on the mushrooms, Elliott is near a campfire when she suddenly sees a woman (played by Aubrey Plaza) sitting next to her. The woman says that she is Elliott at 39 years old. Elliott doesn’t believe her at first until the woman shows Elliott that she has the same torso scar that Elliott got from a childhood accident. Both of the Elliotts have some back-and-forth banter—younger Elliott thinks 39 is middle-aged, while older Elliott thinks 39 is still a young age—and trade some snide quips about what the future holds for Elliott.

The older Elliott will only reveal that she is a Ph. D. student in Toronto and is dating a woman. Younger Elliott asks older Elliott for life advice. Older Elliott tells younger Elliott to be nicer to her family and not take them for granted. Younger Elliott also asks older Elliott what her definition is of healthy love. Older Elliott says that healthy love is safety and freedom at the same time. After some of the jokes and semi-insults, older Elliott gets serious and gives younger Elliott a dire warning to not have sex with someone named Chad, but older Elliott won’t say why. It’s a warning that confuses and haunts younger Elliott for most of the movie.

Elliott goes home after the camping trip and thinks older Elliott was just a hallucination until she sees that older Elliott had put her phone number in younger Elliott’s phone. Not long after this psychedelic experience, Elliott is skinny dipping in a lake when has a “meet cute” experience with a guy named Chad (played by Percy Hynes White), who’s also in the lake for a swim. It turns out that Chad is an undergrad college student who is working at the farm for the summer. He has plans to eventually get a master’s degree in pharmacology.

“My Old Ass” then becomes mostly about Elliott trying to navigate and understand her growing feelings for Chad, who is intelligent, funny and kind. Elliott is confused not only because her older self told her to stay away from Chad but also because Elliott had always assumed that she would only be sexually attracted to women. Chad is clearly attracted to Elliott too, but she is very reluctant to get involved with Chad.

“My Old Ass” has a lot of familiar “will they or won’t they” scenes in movies about two people who are romantically attracted to each other, but one person is hesitant to act on these feelings. The movie has some quirky comedy, including another hallucinogenic experience involving Justin Bieber’s 2009 hit “One Less Lonely Girl.” All of the principal cast members are utterly believable in their roles and have great comedic timing in the performances.

What might surprise viewers and is perhaps somewhat disappointing is that the older Elliott isn’t in the movie as much as the trailer for “My Old Ass” would lead people to believe. In fact, there’s a great deal of the movie where younger Elliott is frantic and frustrated because older Elliott won’t return younger Elliott’s phone calls. There are also huge parts of the movie where Elliott’s best friends Ruthie and Ro aren’t seen at all.

“My Old Ass” has themes that are timeless, but a lot of the movie’s jargon and pop culture references are very mid-2020s and already kind of outdated. Some of the dialogue sounds forced, like an adult’s idea of what a progressive-minded, motormouthed teen (Elliott) would sound like when it just sounds like movie dialogue, not real-life dialogue. These are small flaws in a movie that is overall well-paced, fairly unique and elevated by a very talented cast.

Even though there could have been more scenes between younger Elliott and older Elliott, the movie makes a point of showing that this story doesn’t want to rely too heavily on a time-traveling gimmick. And although the movie’s title is “My Old Ass,” the story’s focus remains consistently from the perspective of younger Elliott. Viewers will be curious to know what older Elliott’s secret is about Chad, but the most interesting and best part of the movie is how Elliott reacts when she inevitably finds out this secret.

Amazon MGM Studios released “My Old Ass” in select U.S. cinemas on September 13, 2024, with an expansion to more U.S. cinemas on September 27, 2024.

Tag: Maisy Stella

Review: ‘Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties: The Bubbles and the Shitrockers Story,’ starring Mike Smith, Billy Bob Thornton, Robb Wells, JP Tremblay, Patrick Roach and Ronnie Wood

Review: ‘My Old Ass,’ starring Maisy Stella, Percy Hynes White, Maddie Ziegler, Kerrice Brooks and Aubrey Plaza