Sundance Review: The 40 Year Old Version
Saturday, February 1, 2020 at 2:00PM 
You love to see a star being born in a festival screening. Specially when that star is over 40, wrote and directed their own star vehicle after years of being ignored. It’s the ultimate artistic dream, to find inspiration from something very personal to you, yet have others respond to it. Remember the name Radha Blank because The 40 Year Old Version is only the beginning for her.
Blank plays a version of herself, a New York playwright nearing her 40th birthday and still struggling to find a place for herself and her art in the city...
Facing a midlife crisis and dealing with grief after her mother passes away, she creates a rapper alter-ego named RadhaMUSprime and tries to find her voice through a new and different artistic endeavor. As that unfolds her latest play finds a home on Broadway but that comes with demands for artistic compromises. We feel for Blank as she tries to remain authentic while yearning for success, money and recognition.
There’s a scene that any creative person would recognize and respond to. After yet another rejection Blank goes home to a plate of ribs and cries while she eats repeating over and over, “I just want to be an artist.” It’s the kind of relatable, poignant, sad and hilarious moment that will endear The 40 Year Old Version to many.
Blank’s writing is funny yet she’s not afraid of finding the jokes at her own expense. She employs a sorta Greek chorus of neighborhood people who speak directly to the camera questioning Blank’s every decision. She also makes great use of the setting of her character’s day job as a teacher. There as Blank tries to teach a few teenagers how to write poetry and plays, we get to meet a multitude of warmly drawn characters that provide heart and humor to the proceedings.
Blank saves her most biting satire and commentary for artistic gatekeepers behind the scenes on Broadway. Reed Birney has a lot of fun playing a producer who's only interested in Blank’s play if she were to show more suffering for the Black characters or add a white protagonist to sell tickets. Some of the characters in that world - like the older white theatergoers only concerned with attending what they think is hip and cool - are simplistically drawn. However all that happens in that milieu feels authentic and recognizable.
Blank has an authoritative grasp of the hallways, rehearsal rooms and night clubs where art is shaped in the city. We follow her as she tries to mold her play and start her rapping career, and those scenes come with a jolt of liveliness and credibility. She also draws heartrending relationships, not only with her students, but with her life long best friend and agent (Peter Y. Kim), and with a young hip-hop producer (Oswin Benjamin).
Shot in gorgeous black and white 35mm, The 40 Year Old Version is reminiscent of the work of classic New York filmmakers like Spike Lee (it’s no surprise that Blank was a writer on the TV version of She’s Gotta Have It) or singular comedic voices like Greta Gerwig or Issa Rae. It's a unique, crowd pleasing and smart first work from a upcoming grand filmmaker.
Reader Comments (2)
I can’t wait to catch this!
Sounds interesting. If other Team experience members praise it in corroboration I may check it out when it eventually comes my way.