The Forty-Year-Old Version (2020)

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   Siskoid

   Radha Blank's The 40-Year-Old Version is an autobiographical comedy about her struggles as a playwright despite having achieved promising critical success, and consequent turn as a rapper as a means of reinventing herself (and a really good one, actually). Based on her own life, though I'm sure embellished for comic and triumphant effect, it has a lot of truths to tell, about getting to a certain age where the bloom is off the rose, about the New York theatrical scene, about living in the shadow of a talented parent and their disappointments, and most astutely, about how black artists are received by white audiences... One of the most interesting threads concerns a mangled play about gentrification that Radha must gentrify to get on the stage. Should black artists "white it up" to generate mass appeal? Hell no! But see what the movie thinks. Filmed (mostly) in black and white, Blank evokes other African-American film makers like Spike Lee (with whom she has worked) and Cheryl Dunye, with faux-documentarian asides and community interaction, which I've come to associate with that community's indie scene. Here's hoping Blank has reinvented herself once again and is off to a fruitful film making career. 3 years 4 months ago

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