The Forty-Year-Old Version: Netflix to stream award-winning film

Netflix dropped the trailer for The Forty-Year-Old Version, a film which won the US Dramatic Directing Award at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. It is set to be released on October 9, 2020.

Written by the award-winning playwright Radha Blank, The Forty-Year-Old Version is an American comedy film which is also Blank’s directorial debut. Apart from her, the film stars Peter Kim, Oswin Benjamin and Reed Birney.

Blank herself plays the titular character of a 40-year-old New York playwright who rediscovers herself as a rapper.

A classic hip-hop beat introduces Blank with the age-old dilemma of someone trying to find the oomph factor again in their career. In her case, it’s about what kind of a play she wants to write next.

Shot entirely in black-and-white, it has comedy, sass and sarcasm in equal measures. A once-promising playwright tries to find her mojo and make her way back into the thick of things.

The trailer of The Forty-Year-Old Version proceeds with a Black playwright wondering what would it take to be the talk of the town, ‘a slave musical or an all-White play’. Along with the humour, it urges you to think of the racial discrimination that still dominates American life.

Blank shines and dominates each and every frame of this 2:30 minutes trailer. Her character questions herself yet is relentless in what she is doing, what she has planned on doing. The film is loosely based on her own life.

The earring in the picture is reminiscent of the book cover of Grown by Tiffany D. Jackson, which will be releasing in the following month and the cover of which was designed by Erin Fitzsimmons. The gold hoop earrings which encircle the relevant titles (in this film’s case, a glowing 40) is a symbol of Black and Latina culture and is a powerful statement of womanhood.

Netflix is playing a pivotal role in amplifying black voices with a host of web series, films, and weekly shows; including upcoming web series Colin in Black and White, and its ongoing podcast Strong Black Legends.

Check out the official trailer of The Forty-Year-Old Version here:


Also read: The Haunting of Bly Manor to release this fall on Netflix

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