'Late Night' A Review

Late Night is a dramedy about late night talk show host Katherine Newbury(Emma Thompson who's long standing show is being cancelled because of declining ratings. Enter Molly Patel(Mindy Kaling) a chemical plant worker, and aspiring comedian who seemingly doesn't do comedy(?), who randomly gets an interview for the shows writing staff and is hired because of a mandate to hire a woman writer. Molly and Katherine develop an odd couple friendship or at least professional relationship which reignites Katherine's comedic passions and gives Molly an opportunity to fulfill her dream of writing for late night.

Thompson is a totally authentic delight, no surprise there, its nice to see her in a more modern role with some significant comedic range. The script isn't up to her colossal ability but her significant screen time is a treat. Kaling doesn't fair well opposite the Oscar winner, her performance is pretty flat, unbelievable, and underwritten. She's unable to make much of the, admittedly muddled and thin, emotional arch of the character. We have no real sense of who she is, what her comedic style is, or if she's even funny. The supporting cast, predominantly douchy white dudes, are fine I guess but they are given way to much screen time and attention for the idea of them being the butt of the joke to really play. Lithgow as the husband of Katherine is the one exception as a character with actual dimension but he is mostly sidelined.

It is refreshing to see this fictional world where one of the long standing late night talk show hosts is a woman, doubly so given Thompson is one of the greatest actors living, however the plotting of the show veers from bizarre to tone deaf to hopelessly dated.  The ivy league privilege of the writing staff isn't particularly challenged, the entitlement of the wealthy is kind of glossed over, and whatever feminist message is being attempted is undermined by the story itself and its cast. Because the reality is the majority of the speaking parts in the movie are given to white men, the writers room of the show is "transformed" at the end to be more diverse but it is done in a montage with no dialogue. Perhaps Kaling's intent was to show the "reality" of the writers room but if that is it it is not particularly interesting and it feels regressive rather than progressive. Why not see the comedy writers room we want rather than the ones we have type of thing. Plot wise this could have been done any number of ways.

A great idea, a wonderful Emma Thompson performance, and a real mess of a story.

Stream It.