If you were a queer Canadian teenager and Aubrey Plaza appeared to you as your future self, would you heed her ominous warning?

Elliott (Maisy Stella, Nashville) is queer, about to turn 18 and can’t wait to leave her Canadian cranberry-farming family for college in Toronto. Camping beside a lake with her besties Ruthie and Ro, she sips some magic-mushroom tea that somehow summons her jaded 39-year-old self (Plaza, Megalopolis, MIFF 2024; Emily the Criminal, MIFF 2022). Elliott can’t resist asking for some tips on what’s ahead. Her future self is cagey, not wanting to alter Elliott’s path, but she insists on one thing: “Stay away from Chad.” What? Elliott’s not even into guys! But then she meets the family’s goofy new summer farmhand, and guess what his name is?

Everyone’s toyed with this time-travelling scenario, but Megan Park’s endearing coming-of-age comedy-fantasy – which was produced by Margot Robbie – hits the perfect bittersweet spot of hope and nostalgia. Its tropes of wisecracking mentors and life lessons may be familiar, but its characters feel like real people, and its secret weapon is the magnetic chemistry between Stella as the impetuous young Elliott and a dependably wry Plaza as her old ass. Like adulthood in general, this tender Sundance gem holds more surprises than you might expect.

“One of the best coming-of-age comedies we can remember in forever … It’s like you’re watching the birth of a genuine new talent on screen.” – The Playlist