Thompson, Kaling are queens of ‘Late Night’
Unlike the corner of the entertainment industry it tackles, Mindy Kaling’s quick-witted screenplay for “Late Night” doesn’t go for cheap laughs, but instead wields incisive barbs to successfully make its point.
While Kaling also stars as an upand-coming TV writer who gets her dream job, “Late Night” (★★★☆; rated R; in theaters Friday in New York and L.A., goes nationwide June 14) truly is Emma Thompson’s show as the Oscar-winning British actress brilliantly crafts an indelible smallscreen host who’s pulled kicking and screaming into modern woke hipness.
Katherine Newbury (Thompson) has been a decades-long institution of the late-night circuit yet has grown complacent: The Fallons and Kimmels of the world have come along as socialmedia superstars and grabbed mainstream viewers while Katherine flirts with irrelevancy, booking the likes of Dianne Feinstein – cool for a certain crowd, but maybe not for the millennial audience.
Making matters worse is her brusque manner: Katherine loathes the thought of joining Twitter, she doesn’t know any of the names of her all-male writing room (and isn’t a big fan of women in general, either), and her whole life revolves around the show and her husband, Walter (John Lithgow), who has Parkinson’s.
The network president (Amy Ryan) gleefully tells her she’s getting canned within the year, and an annoying dude-bro comedian (Ike Barinholtz) seems to be the chosen heir apparent. When Katherine realizes her show is a garbage fire, she starts making changes.
As Walter tells her, “They can’t replace you if everyone loves you.”
Her embattled executive producer (Denis O’Hare) makes a “diversity hire” by signing Molly Patel (Kaling), a young woman working as a qualitycontrol expert at a Pennsylvania chemical plant. Of course, her spunky, earnest attitude brings eye rolls from obnoxious head monologue writer Tom (Reid Scott) and his boys’ club – plus withering looks from Katherine – though Molly proves integral in reminding her comedy idol what makes her great in the first place.
Like David Letterman meets “The Devil Wears Prada,” the movie hinges on the push-and-pull between Kaling and Thompson, and each actress is up to the task, giving the roles a real arc but also staying true to their characters. The experience hardens Molly, but there’s an inherently unbreakable spirit there, too. More significantly, Katherine changes a bunch from beginning to end, and yet there’s a wonderful edge to her that never leaves.
Directed by Nisha Ganatra, “Late Night” feels authentic given Kaling’s pop-culture history and writing accomplishments: She was a performer as well as the first female (and person of color) writer on “The Office,” plus an intern for “Late Night With Conan O’Brien.” Consequently, the frustrating obstacles Molly navigates – from guys blatantly using the women’s bathroom to the writers’ area looking like Bluto Blutarsky just blew through town – seem all too real. But while the movie is super-topical and even takes on a #MeToo-type scandal, its razorsharp satire doesn’t go full throttle in taking the toxic culture to task and leans more predictable than biting in the end.
While the movie isn’t quite as funny as you’d expect (some of the humor doesn’t land well, and there’s a serious bent to the behind-the-scenes shenanigans), it’s definitely poignant when it needs to be.
And all hail Kaling for gifting Thompson – and us – with her best leading role in ages: an enigmatic, watchable sort who learns to get political, take down the occasional inane YouTube star, and do goofy Billy Eichner-style, on-the-street interviews as the once and future queen of “Late Night.”