An excellent film about the world of urban arts in uptown NYC, as seen by struggling playwright Radha Blank

I have to say that on when I'd first heard about the new (2020) Netflix film The 40-Year-Old Version (written, directed, starring playwright Radha Blank) I though, despite strong reviews, that this would be a film for which let's just say I would not be the ideal audience. All the more props to the amazing R Blank in that I was totally captivated, entertained, and moved by her really intelligent and imaginative film. She plays, in a role that seems autobiographical but honestly I know nothing else about her life and work, a 39+-year-old Black playwright/director who'd been honored a decade back as one of 30 Under 30 playwrights on the rise and now, producing no new work over the past decade, beginning to question all aspects of her life and career. We see her in the various aspects of her current life, dealing w/ a range of problems and issues: she teaches a high-school drama class to make ends meet, but, despite her obvious affinity for the work and the kids, realizes this is not her life plan; struggles with her brother over the disposition of her late mother's estate; spats and make-ups with her long-time agent and lifetime friend; pressure from a theater troupe eager to stage a play she's been working on about the gentrification of Harlem, but at great cost to her integrity and her vision; and most of all her strange desire to channel her work into a rap mixtape. She's surprisingly good at it - in spite of the obvious differences in class and age between her and others in the rap community, of which we get a glimpse. Surprisingly, she develops a relationship with the sweet but much younger rap entrepreneur, who goes by the name of D. The film has many great seasons on and off various stages, and overall a jaunty, sometimes sweet style and an unflinching look at life on the streets and the subways in contemporary uptown NYC. Anyone who's worked in, dabbled in, or dreamed of joining the world of urban arts will or should enjoy and gain insight from Blank's film.