New York Times Review: By A.O. Scott
“For purposes of clarity and in keeping with this publication’s style guidelines, I’m going to refer to Radha, the main character in “The Forty-Year-Old Version,” by her first name. The Radha Blank who wrote and directed it, and who plays Radha, will get the more formal last-name treatment.
You could argue that it’s a distinction without much of a difference, since this movie, premiering Friday on Netflix, is obviously — poignantly, hilariously, disarmingly — autobiographical. But Blank is equally concerned with what it means and how it feels to be an artist, which is to say a maker of metaphorical masks and literal alter egos. Radha, like her creator, is a playwright, and as such is well aware that authenticity can be both an imperative and a trap — in particular for an artist of color working in a milieu (downtown, nonprofit theater) dominated by white assumptions and sensitivities...Read more.