The Forty-Year-Old Version

Radha is a New York playwright approaching forty whose career has stalled. She pays the bills teaching theater at a high school, and when a chance comes to stage a new play on Broadway, the compromises demanded of her, including adding a white lead character, leave her questioning what she is willing to give up. Searching for a way forward, she turns to rap and begins performing under a new identity, torn between the theater world she knows and the music scene she is entering.

The film is written and directed by Radha Blank, who also stars as a version of herself, working from her own experience. It was produced by Lena Waithe, Jennifer Semler and Blank. The supporting cast includes Peter Y. Kim as Archie, Oswin Benjamin as D, Reed Birney as J. Whitman, Imani Lewis as Elaine and T.J. Atoms as Kamal, among 51 credited performers. It runs 123 minutes and was released in October 2020.

On IMDb it holds 7.2 out of 10 from roughly 5,800 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 6.7 from around 118 votes, a small sample by comparison. A critics' rating of 8.1 from 138 reviews places it noticeably higher than the audience scores. This was Blank's first feature as director.