I love a good triple threat. Writer/Director/Star Radha Blank knocks it out of the park with her breakout film The Forty Year Old Version, her story of a fictionalized version of herself, a formerly more successful playwright finding herself at a crossroads, and turning to making hip hop. Version is damn funny, honestly vulnerable, and entertaining as all hell.
Blank is a star. She is impossible to look away from in every scene. She gives such a rich, remarkable performance. She made me laugh out loud, and tear up a little. And what's great is that despite being such a presence she makes time in her film for other characters, also strong (from Kim as her long time best friend, to Lewis and Velazquez as up and coming artists in their own right) to shine as well.
The 40 Year Old Version sneaks some rom-com tropes into it's coming of age story. It is undeniably about a woman finding herself but also gives her the right to find love in the way women like her often are never allowed in film. So seeing her take on some of those gimmicks is joyous. Yet she never makes her journey about that. The love story is a bit of sideline, a byproduct of her own journey.
Blank also litters her film with quite a few targeted and precise critiques around gender, race, and class in NYC. She does this deftly so they can go subliminally under the surface yet still strike, but they can also be clever little bombs of truth throughout a story that doesn't feel like it's lecturing you. It's a brilliant construction throughout.
Yes she gives a star making performance, and she writes a story that is the whole package, but then she also directs this film (which I believe might be her first feature) by making it look like she can do all this in her sleep. The way she crafts her tale to the way she shoots it, lights it, just gives her Radha's story life, is remarkable. This is the sort of film that will have you clapping along with a big grin on your face. And it makes me want to see whatever Blank decides to do next.
The 40 Year Old Version
Starring: Radha Blank, Peter Kim, Oswin Benjamin, Imani Lewis, Haskiri Velazquez, Antonio Ortiz, TJ Atoms, Reed Birney
Writer/Director: Radha Blank
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