Radha Blank proves a memorable new artist when she does it all in this pleasant dramedy.
The Forty-Year-Old Version (on Netflix)
Grade: B+
Director: Radha Blank
Screenplay: Blank
Cast: Blank, Oswin Benjamin
Runtime: 2h 9min
Rating: R
By: John DeSando
As director, writer, and star of The Forty-Year-Old Version, Rahda Blank creates a powerful amalgam of creative energy and anguish. On the one hand her drama quietly fuses the artistic aspirations of an emerging Black artist with the realities of cultural and fiscal mandates (like paying the rent) that a Broadway play attaches to itself; on the other hand, is plain old turning 40!
Her play within this film, Harlem Ave, would have been a frenetic tale of joy and sorrow for Blacks emerging from underprivileged circumstances to successful artistry in their own Harlem hood (think a young Spike Lee). Yet, the reality is it will turn out not like that in part because the white producer, Josh Whitman (Reed Birney), forces on her his cultural poverty-porn and happy ending tropes without the benign tensions that cultural differences bring to the creative process. Finding her voice is a struggle given the strong forces against her.
The ending is concerned with the misfit between reality and fantasy, the Black experience, and the white dream of harmony. Radha’s connection with D (Oswin Benjamin) is a refreshing bit of old-fashioned romance amidst the not so glamorous artist’s life.
The rest of the film deals with white dictates because it focuses on Radha’s own dream of either writing her play and compromising her integrity or switching over to a career in hip-hop. In that way, the film is a sobering commentary on the challenges of mounting a play in any place, any time, or any color.
Radha’s teaching drama technique to young teens has perhaps the richest meaning for Radha and her film: It allows her to show her considerable talent to draw out the best in her students and in herself. Although teaching is not her passion, it ironically shows her best, more than playwrighting or hip-hop could ever do.
Although in real life Radha Blank has written for Netflix’s She’s Gotta Have It and Fox’s Empire, in The Forty-Year-Old Version she reflects her brooding dreams of a much bigger struggle. Given her charisma and remarkable wit, Radha is bound to make it very big as she almost does in this almost-autobiography of her talented rise.
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts WCBE’s It’s Movie Time and co-hosts Cinema Classics. Contact him at JohnDeSando62@gmail.com
