LATE NIGHT – Review

Emma Thompson and Mindy Kaling star in a sort of buddy comedy about a much-lauded but out-of-touch late-night talk show host who hires a young South Asian-American chemist-turned-comedy writer to turn around her sagging ratings, in director Nisha Ganatra’s LATE NIGHT. Yeah, it’s silly but it is surprisingly fun as Thompson and Kaling explore topics ranging from toxic workplaces, sexism, diversity, cut-throat television competition to what makes comedy work, all with dash of inspiration and warmth

The film opens with Thompson’s Katherine Newbury accepting yet another award for her long-career as the first woman to host a late night talk show. Katherine’s show features guests such as Doris Kearns Goodwin and an opening monologue but over the years she has fallen into routine and complacency. With all her awards, the last thing she expects is for the network’s new female CEO to tell her she is being replaced.

Shocked into action, Katherine turns to her writing staff and suddenly notices it is all men. In an effort to add a woman’s voice, she hires the first one through the door – Molly (Kaling), a South Asian-American chemist trying to break into comedy writing.

As soon as newbie Molly shows up in the all-male, all-white writers room, they assume she’s there to fetch coffee. “I wish I was a woman of color so I could get hired with zero qualification,” whines one of the writers, in a fit of white male privilege. But while Molly may have little experience, she brings a ton of brains and fresh ideas to the stale writers’ room.

Mindy Kaling really makes this work. Of course, Kaling certainly knows something about being a woman writer in the male-dominated comedy field, as well as working in television. She works in bits about clueless bosses, slams at diversity hires, and a host of other timely topics. Not every bit works but there are enough of them to garner laughs of enough to keep the movie bouncing along.

While Kaling does her fish-out-of-water comedy, Thompson mines the film’s more dramatic side. Thompson’s character is a comedian who seems to have lost her sense of humor. As charming as she seems in public, she is pretty callous to her staff. She is a self-absorbed boss from hell dressed in designer clothes (a little echo from “The Devil Wears Prada”) but Thompson makes her more than that. Thompson does sport some flashy fashions and footwear as she terrorizes her staff. After years of ignoring her writers, she shows up at their meeting demanding material that is timely and funny. Not wanting to bother to learning their names, she gives them numbers instead.

Meanwhile Thompson explores other topics with her character, an ambitious driven woman who forgo having a family for her career. She lives only for her career – and for her husband Walter (John Lithgow), a respected academic now in poor health. The film explores the complications in her long marriage, with warm, well-drawn performances from both Lithgow and Thompson.

Kaling’s character faces a daunting workplace where women are not welcome – much less one of color. She is not only expected to get the coffee but finds the all-male writing team even use the women’s bathroom. She doesn’t even get a chair at the writer’s table and has only a corner of a desk. Still, she gets organized and gets to work on jokes for the monologue

There is potential for some pointed political humor here but Kaling takes a softer approach, making some points but backing off from anything truly biting. Kaling makes up for that with warmth and the kind of bonding scenes between her and Thompson, in a female version of a bromance (sis-mance? womance?). They start out not liking but needing each other, and winding up more like mentor-protege, even friends.

Kaling and Thompson are good in their scenes together, although their characters are often on dual tracks. The more affecting scenes are between Thompson and Lithgow as the long-married couple, working through a rough patch. Kaling bounces her comedy off the fellow writers, landing some good barbs.

LATE NIGHT’s two-track approach – comedic and dramatic – to exploring the challenges women face in the workplace doesn’t always work but it works often enough to make the film funny and thought-provoking most of the time. Which is pretty good.

LATE NIGHT opens Friday, June 14 at the Hi-Pointe Theater, Plaza Frontenac Cinema, and other area theaters.

RATING: 4 out of 5 stars