October is a big month for Netflix (then again, I’m not sure Netflix has ever taken a month “off”). There’s Aaron Sorkin’s probable-Best Picture contender The Trial of The Chicago 7; a remake of a film that actually won Best Picture, Rebecca; and the second volume of Unsolved Mysteries. Be sure to add The Forty-Year-Old Version to the list, too. Directed and written by Radha Blank, the black-and-white comedy is about a former-“30 Under 30” award-winning playwright (also Blank) who’s still struggling for her big break as she’s pushing 40, so she takes up rapping.
The Forty-Year-Old Version was a hit at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, where Blank won the U.S. Dramatic Competition Directing Award, with the Hollywood Reporter‘s Beandrea July calling it “a love letter to the people of pre-gentrified Harlem (she’s a New York native), to old-school hip-hop, to struggling artists, to young people with big dreams and to black women who dare to live life out of the box.”
Here’s the official plot synopsis:
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.
The Forty-Year-Old Version, produced by Lena Waithe, debuts on Netflix on October 9.
