This podcast episode explores two wonderful 2020 dramedies, Spinster and The Forty-Year-Old Version, about women who find themselves at a personal and career crossroads as they approach forty.
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Left: Chelsea Peretti in Spinster; Right: Radha Blank in The Forty-Year-Old Version.
This episode features Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney, Executive Editor Orla Smith, and Contributing Editor Lindsay Pugh.
On this podcast episode about Spinster and The Forty-Year-Old Version
- The rise of films about coming of age in your thirties (5:39)
- The Forty-Year-Old Version (11:39)
- Spinster (31:25)
- The films’ aesthetic choices (58:37)
- How to pronounce Halifax (1:21:05)
The Forty-Year-Old Version (Radha Blank, 2020)
From our review: “The funny, smart, wildly entertaining The Forty-Year-Old Version is among other things, an exploration of how difficult it is for a marginalised creator to be authentic to their own voice and get paid. Blank, a playwright herself, writes the on-screen Radha as a playwright living in Harlem who won a 30 Under 30 award 10 years ago and now struggles to catch a break. She’s torn about the fate of her new play, Harlem Ave: either keep it in limbo at a small, underfunded Black-owned theatre, or sell out to big Broadway producer Josh Whitman (Reed Birney), who wants to sanitise the play for white audiences.” Read the full review.
The Forty-Year-Old Version is streaming on Netflix worldwide.
Spinster (Andrea Dorfman, 2020)
From the introduction to our interview with Andrea Dorfman: “In the press notes for Spinster, director Andrea Dorfman describes it as a film that ‘tells a story of someone who isn’t always seen — in this case, the single woman.’ Single women in films are usually partnered up by the end of the story. Spinster has been marketed as an ‘anti rom-com’, because even though it’s a heartwarming comedy about a woman’s relationships, the script steadfastly maintains that heroine Gaby (Chelsea Peretti) doesn’t need romantic love to be happy.
The film begins on Gaby’s 39th birthday and ends on her 40th; in between, we watch her realise that romantic love isn’t the be all and end all of her existence, as romantic comedies so often paint it to be. At first, Gaby is actively seeking a man, even after a series of thoroughly disappointing dates. But throughout the film, she learns that by working on strengthening the non-romantic relationships in her life, she can find joy outside of romantic love.” Read the full interview.
Spinster is available on VOD, and streaming on Prime in the US.
Episode notes
- Listen to our podcast episode on Kris Rey’s thirtysomethings
- Listen to our podcast episode on abortion on screen, featuring Saint Frances
- Read Orla’s essay on the New Wave of Midlife Coming-Of-Age Films for Girls on Tops
- Listen to our episode on Justine Triet’s films
- Read Orla’s interview with Spinster cinematographer Stéphanie Anne Weber Biron
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