Radha is a down-on-her-luck NY playwright, who is desperate for a breakthrough before 40. Reinventing herself as rapper RadhaMUSPrime, she vacillates between the worlds of Hip Hop and theater in order to find her true voice.... (Full plot summary below)
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Radha is a down-on-her-luck NY playwright, who is desperate for a breakthrough before 40. Reinventing herself as rapper RadhaMUSPrime, she vacillates between the worlds of Hip Hop and theater in order to find her true voice.
Leave your thoughts about The Forty-Year-Old Version.
| The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Aparita BhandariBlank is hilarious and candid in this must-watch film. Every moment she breaks the fourth wall with an eye roll is worthy of a freeze frame. |
| The New York TimesA.O. ScottIt revels in the pleasure and struggle of creative work. This comes through in the rambunctiousness of Radha’s students, in her belated appreciation of her mother’s paintings, in shots of street murals and sonic scraps of freestyle rhyming — in pretty much every frame of a film that, like its heroine, is grumpy, tender, wistful, funny and combative. Also beautiful. |
| The A.V. ClubShannon MillerIt doesn’t offer perfect solutions, only a brand of humor and astute wisdom one might from someone who has lived the life. |
| RogerEbert.comNell MinowThe Forty-Year-Old Version is brimming with sharp but often understated humor and a deep experience of making art. |
| Chicago TribuneKatie WalshThe Forty-Year-Old-Version is that rarest of films: funny, wry, incisive, sexy and sincere. |
| LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenWitheringly funny and willing to explore her own (her character’s?) flaws, Blank brings a vibrant brand of comic honesty to the screen. |
| Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangThe sly achievement of The Forty-Year-Old Version is to turn a critical eye on the very idea of success (by whose standards?), and to ponder exactly what level of compromise is acceptable to secure it. |
| Vanity FairRichard LawsonWith weary humor, Blank details how hard it is to sustain an actual, decades-long career in the arts, when the twin forces of public appetite (and money) and personal obstacle conspire to derail or deaden what was once so exuberant, so teeming with possibility. |
| Washington PostAnn HornadayIt's a foregone conclusion that The Forty-Year-Old Version will be compared with films by Woody Allen, Spike Lee and Judd Apatow, the latter of whom is referenced in the title and the steady stream of vulgar humor that courses through Blank’s dialogue. But even with those obvious references, she’s crafted something all her own. |
| IndieWireEric KohnThe 40-Year-Old Version doesn’t overcome all of its rough edges, but they’re so closely tied to the personality of the creator that it’s hard to shake the underlying appeal. |
