The 40-Year-Old Version: Sundance Review

Synopsis

From Sundance Institute:

Radha, a once-promising playwright, is barreling toward the stigma of being single and a struggling artist at the age of 40. Facing nonstop rejections from the theatre community while teaching a motley group of teens, she becomes creatively re-invigorated when she returns to rapping, her long-forgotten passion. When her play finally gets going, however, she puts recording a rap demo on the back burner and must navigate the awful tension of compromising her voice for career success. 

Review

This film is extremely well written. I don't say this as a blanket statement, and here's why. The success of a comedy lies 80% in the writing and the other 20% in delivery. For a comedy to be this effective, it has to have an exceptionally strong script. This is exactly why I feel that Booksmart was snubbed for Best Original Screenplay at the 2020 Oscars. But, I digress. As previously mentioned, this film is soooooo f*cking funny, I can't even. The jokes come so fast and they're so sharp, it's fantastic. My favorites are her first rap about being 40 ("Why these AARP n****s sendin' sh*t to my house?!") and her final interaction with the homeless man across the street ("Can you put some mayonnaise on both sides of the dry a** bread?!"). COMEDY GOLD!!! This film has an interesting visual style (I meant to ask a question about it during the Q+A, but we had to get to the next screening). It is beautifully shot. The film's black-and-white aesthetic seeks to view the new/contemporary through the lens of the old, a symbol for the film as a whole (and I'm not saying that 40 is old). Now, this movie does have some pacing issues. It's about 10-15 min too long, but the laughs and the prospect of more laughter will keep you in it. Writer/director/producer/star Radha Blank has a very bright future ahead of her. I'm glad that it's getting distribution and a theatrical rollout from Netflix because Netflix will give this film the audience it deserves.