Review: The Forty-Year-Old Version
The Forty-Year-Old Version is funny because it’s self-aware. It’s smart because it’s relevant. It’s genuine because it’s birthed from the mind of someone who has lived the actual story we’re watching. It’s one of the most clever comedies to be released in a long while and it’s unfortunately flying under the radar.
Radha Blank, the writer and director plays a version of herself in the film: a has-been playwright working as an acting teacher at a Harlem high-school to pay the bills, but who’s trying to clamor her way back to the top. The film is an indictment about who gets to tell stories and why they do or do not get to tell them in their own way. Blank plays with this idea brilliantly as she writes a play about a true-to-her experience of growing up in Harlem, but the only way she can get the play produced is if she takes notes from the White producers with the funding. And the notes in this case involved changing the core of what makes it her story.
In a twist (and what provides most of the laughs) Blank decides to try her hand at rapping. In some ways, it’s an effort to create something, anything that’s truly a reflection of who she is. The film is sharply funny, the performances are stellar, and the music is really good, so it’s no surprise the film won the directing award at Sundance, but after its release on Netflix it seems to be getting lost in the noise on the large streamer - trying to compete with other flashy titles. So I won’t mince words. Go watch this film. Skip the Netflix originals floating to the top of your queue and try something fresh. You won’t regret it.