Late Night

Starring: Emma Thompson, Mindy Kaling, John Lithgow, Hugh Dancy, Reid Scott, Denis O'Hare. Max Casella, Paul Walter Hauser, Ike Barinholtz, Amy Ryan, Seth Myers
Directed by: Nisha Ganatra
Rating: R
Genre: Comedy, Drama
2019

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: An inexperienced comedy writer (Mindy Kaling) struggles with her overbearing boss (Emma Thompson), a late night host who fears she may lose her show.

Review:

Tim: I like Mindy Kaling, so I was hoping to like her first feature film screenplay. I couldn't bring myself to do it, though. Sure, the movie is fine- it's okay. However, there's some big flaws that sink the film. It's certainly not a bad movie, but it's not very enjoyable.

Very little in terms of the movie feels unique. The movie feels uncomfortably close to The Devil Wears Prada, which doesn't do this film any favors. That movie is far superior to this one. The movie never quite knows what it's trying to say. It's about this late night host who is horrible, but she's kind of cool, but still not good. It's about a young wannabe writer trying to break into the business and forced to overcome sexism and classism. It's a film about the television industry. It's all these things and it doesn't do any of them especially well.

I struggled mightily with the character of Katherine Newbury. Emma Thompson is all in on the performance- you can't fault her for giving the role her all. She pales in comparison to Meryl Streep (I know, a bit of an unfair comparative) and the script didn't do her any favors. The film starts out and she's just a despicable human being. Her callousness towards those helping her succeed is quite awful. The movie works hard to give us multiple, specific reasons to dislike this character. And then, the movie works hard trying to show that she undergoes a change. This isn't told in a believable manner, however. I believe awful people like her exist in show business and I believe people can change and make radical transformations, but I did not believe the character arc of Katherine Newbury. The film kind of hedges its bets, too. Even after we're supposed to "like" her more and forgive her somewhat, she continues to do some bad things. Some people might view this as complex human behavior, but I think the character was just mishandled. It's a shame, because Thompson is quite good in the role.

Kaling's role isn't quite great, either. It's interesting because she wrote the role, I'm assuming drawing on her personal experience. There were moments that felt authentic and real. However, it also feels like parts were glossed over and shined up for no reason. I imagine Kaling's rise might broadly follow the character here, but it wasn't presented as believable. What she is able to accomplish in a short amount of time is amazing and people do that, but the script doesn't convince me that it was plausible here. She does give a good performance, though. I liked seeing John Lithgow, but outside of one or two really good scenes, he doesn't have a whole lot to do. The rest of the supporting cast is mostly the male writers' room, which is fine. They seemed authentically realistic enough. Kaling tries to do interesting things with the characters- some you like, then you don't. Some you don't like, but grow to like more. However, this doesn't work as well as intended.

The movie really isn't all that funny. I'm trying to remember laughing. Outside of some humorous one-liners that Thompson delivers to those around her, there's not a whole lot. It's decently entertaining, but short on genuine laughs. The movie is quite predictable and follows the expected path. There's been numerous movies like this, and it's most derivative. It never really gives us anything special or unique, nothing we haven't seen a hundred times before. Now, the one exception is that it's always fascinating to watch movies that show us the behind-the-scenes world of showbiz. I appreciated that aspect of the movie, it's always somewhat worthwhile to see what happens in the writer's room of a late night show, for example. The times when the movie "talked shop" were among the better scenes of the film. The movie really falls down on the people side, not the subject matter side.

Late Night isn't a bad movie, but it's a deeply flawed one. One of my biggest complains is that I just didn't enjoy watching it. It wasn't a fun experience. I don't feel like I learned anything. It didn't challenge my preconceived notions, it didn't really entertain me. It doesn't do much except eat up time. It really needed to be much, much better.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Double Indemnity, The Devil Wears Prada