Late Night (2019)

June 17, 2019 4:52 PM

A late-night talk show host suspects that she may soon be losing her long-running show.

Katherine Newbury (Emma Thompson) is a pioneer and legendary host on the late-night talk-show circuit. When she's accused of being a "woman who hates women," she puts affirmative action on the to-do list, and --presto!--Molly (Mindy Kaling) is hired as the one woman in Katherine's all-male writers' room. But Molly might be too little too late, as the formidable Katherine also faces the reality of low ratings and a network that wants to replace her. Wanting to prove she's not merely a diversity hire who's disrupting the comfort of the brotherhood, Molly is determined to help Katherine revitalize her show and career--and possibly effect even bigger change at the same time.

Director: Nisha Ganatra
Writer: Mindy Kaling (screenplay by)
Stars: Emma Thompson, Mindy Kaling, John Lithgow

posted by I_Love_Bananas (6 comments total)

This felt like a rom com, but for Molly's career instead of her romantic life. And I mean that in a good way, just to be clear.

There were some good jokes, and I liked the way the script treated Molly's earnestness as off-putting to her new writer co-workers but also as one of her strengths.

But the main draw is definitely the performances - Emma Thompson and Mindy Kaling are both fantastic, and I teared up at more than one of John Lithgow's scenes.

Also, the clothes were awesome for both Kaling and Thompson. I covet that zebra blazer.
posted by the primroses were over at 7:20 PM on June 17, 2019 [1 favorite]

I found this enjoyable. There are some predictable story beats but I also appreciated some of the things that it avoided doing. There were some fresh takes to tired genre cliches. However, my love of Veep meant that my perception of Reid Scott's character was skewed for most of the movie because I kept expecting him to be more like what Hugh Dancy's character ended up being. But that's on me, not the movie.
posted by acidnova at 10:16 AM on June 18, 2019

A good story at the heart of it, but man, the writing and the acting were just plain bad. I was expecting more from Mindy Kaling.
posted by Clustercuss at 6:57 AM on June 23, 2019 [1 favorite]

I really enjoyed this! A romcom between Katherine and Molly, Molly and her work, and the supporting cast were excellent.

Some links I've enjoyed:

Late Night review – battle of words in the TV writers' room [Guardian]
(Interview: Mindy Kaling: ‘I was so embarrassed about being a diversity hire’[Guardian])
‘Late Night’ Review: Thompson and Kaling Shine as Unapologetically Funny Women [Collider]
Emma Thompson Plays a Fearsome Lady Boss in ‘Late Night’ [Rolling Stone]
Mindy Kaling’s Late Night Is a Workplace Comedy in the Guise of a Cozy Romcom [Vulture]
‘Late Night’ Review: Emma Thompson Takes On the Old Boys of Network TV [NYT, plus Anatomy of a Scene]
Late Night - Featurette: The Making Of [YT]
Mindy Kaling on Making ‘Late Night': ‘It Was Really F—ing Hard’ [The Wrap]
‘Late Night’ Director on Collaborating with Emma Thompson [Collider]
Mindy Kaling’s Late Night Is a Rebuttal 15 Years in the Making [Slate]
posted by ellieBOA at 5:43 AM on September 7, 2019 [1 favorite]

I just can't buy that someone this earnest is supposed to be funny even though we never see her telling a funny joke, and also actual funny people don't need to be coaxed and cajoled to say something funny instead of reading a book report. All Molly does is snap at people or kiss their feet or be the butt of an unflattering joke. It would have made 100% more sense if Molly was *actually* funny and the host was a man. Like if there's a situation that needs commenting on, then do that. To me making the host a woman kind of lets men off the hook for excluding women from comedy, like oh there could be a woman host & she would hate women and not hire them too! Oh, women cheat on their husbands too! Katherine's character didn't come across as a naturally funny person either, just someone who needed to be on a different show or to go be an English professor. And like that standup set she did, the audience started laughing as soon as she said something that sounded like a joke so she kept saying things that sounded like jokes. I just can't imagine a character like this existing.
posted by bleep at 10:27 PM on October 25, 2019 [1 favorite]

This is like if #notallmen and "why is there no conservative comedy" had a baby.
posted by bleep at 10:33 PM on October 25, 2019