Late Night follows talk-show host Katherine Newbury, played Emma Thompson, who would have been a contemporary of David Letterman and Jay Leno, and has outlasted them all, being the only woman who has run her own late-night talk-show program. Now, she’s in the days of Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers (the latter of whom makes a cameo here), and her act has remained virtually the same, which leads to her show getting canceled at the end of the season. In an effort to turn thing around and reach out to current mainstream audiences, her team hires Molly Patel, played by Mindy Kaling, to come aboard as the show’s only female writer in an otherwise male-dominated staff. Molly, a longtime fan of the show, works to not only save Katherine’s show, but to overcome her own hardships in the workplace.
Late Night’s social commentary, to say the least, is both very direct and very obvious, and it lays all its cards on the table right up front. It certainly has some noble intentions, tackling the topic of discrimination in the workplace, as well as lack of diversity in a male-dominated industry. And while it does get right to the point in setting the whole scenario up, it does lead to some setups that feel like they’re as outdated as Katherine Newbury herself, such as Molly being mistaken as an office assistant by the male staff before she could be properly introduced.
While there sure are work environments to this day that are still male-dominated, the way the characters look at diversity in the workplace is far from believable. When the staff is first introduced to Molly, their exaggerated reactions give off an aura that they’ve never heard of such a thing at all in 2019 rather than this being the first time there’s been a female writer on Katherine Newbury’s staff. Characters at first speak in such generic platitudes addressing this topic that it feels like they belong in a training video for the first day on the job rather than a feature film.
While Newbury’s history, as well as the show itself, is explored in this movie, it often feels like it doesn’t go as in-depth on the topics that would have been intriguing to explore, especially since they’re all relevant to the central story. It would be quite interesting to see how Newbury - a notable female talk-show host - would up until this point only have a male-only staff. She’s accused as being “a woman who hates other women” but that’s never explored. And while she’s proud of the fact that she hasn’t used social media or left her personal feelings out of her show, it still feels mind-boggling that she even lasted as long as she did.
Meanwhile, Newbury’s show is about to be handed over to a newer up-and-coming comedian named Daniel Tennant, played by a gloriously over-the-top Ike Barinholtz, in what’s honestly one of the most perplexing plot points. Tennant is easily the embodiment of toxic masculinity, with his anti-PC stance and frat-boy jokes that would have made him a much better fit in the 90’s or even early 2000’s. His brand of humor seems more in line with Dane Cook or Rob Schneider.
But in 2019, his brand of humor seems so out of place for a late-night talk show. He understandably would have a nice audience, but not the same audience a late night talk show would have. His mindset is not the same as say, Fallon or Conan or Colbert. So it feels contradictory to go from the truly more diverse choice - Newbury - to someone who’s even more a step in the opposite direction like Tennant, even if Newbury is someone who’s also stuck in a different time period. And it’s never explored why this would be the case.
Instead, the movie focuses on other aspects of Newbury’s life, namely her marriage to a highly underused though still likable John Lithgow, as well as other minor subplots involving Molly and the writing staff that are only explored in a handful of scenes before moving on to the next thing. There seems to be plenty of behind-the-scenes drama involving Newbury’s show that seems like it could have been explored had this been a miniseries or one season of an on-going sitcom. However, for a movie, it causes a lack of focus at times, as it feels like the movie every so often loses sight of the plot to save Newbury’s show and open her eyes to today’s world.
This is mostly due to a third act that feels totally disconnected from the first two acts, and it would have been great had this been cut and the movie fleshed out many of the issues that it’s been dealing with up until this point. It’s clear this movie is juggling a lot, which really is mainly due to its screenplay, written by Kaling. This is her first time writing for film, having strictly written for television, where multiple stories can be told at the same time, except in television, these can go on for a whole season. Here, she has only about just under two hours to play around with, yet she still makes the attempt to tell so much at once.
And because of this, certain character shifts come off more as jarring because of how quickly they turn around here. The movie makes it clear that outside of Molly, this is mostly a staff that’s stuck in their old ways, and because of that, say plenty of horrid, unlikable things in the first act. Newbury - in what also feels like an outdated joke - refers to her staff by number because she can’t be bothered to learn their names, while the staff makes multiple borderline offensive comments to Molly, if not flat-out offensive.
So it becomes somewhat unbelievable when the movie enters its second act - which heavily focuses on Newbury’s show changing its format - and everyone’s suddenly portrayed in this overly-positive light. The second act is both contradictory, yet at the same time, easily the most enjoyable part of the movie. While many of the best jokes are in this part of the movie, and it finds its cast to be at their most energetic, it just feels like a totally different set of characters than those who were seen in the first half-hour or so. The shift in tone is jarring and more time should have been spent with these characters to make the idea that the audience should now warm up to them more believable.
That’s not to say that this movie isn’t without its likable moments, because it can be very likable at times, and that’s mainly due to its cast. Emma Thompson is absolutely fantastic as Newbury, even if her characterization is sometimes mismanaged. Thompson takes her portrayal of P.L. Travers in Saving Mr. Banks and infuses her with Meryl Streep’s performance in The Devil Wears Prada, to play easily one of the coldest characters in a film in some time. And it is enjoyable to see her be so ruthless in certain scenes thanks to her incredible energy, and when the film does set her up for some good jokes, she really nails it.
Kaling’s performance is also a joy to watch. And many of the film’s funniest moments do stem from her, including the totally convoluted way in which she makes the career jump from working in a power plant to being a late-night talk-show writer. She has such a bubbly enthusiasm to her that leads to many great throwaway lines and fun exchanges, and even moments of heart. She shines in a first act that contains some of the more cringe-worthy dialogue, and when the movie briefly finds its groove in the second act, she really gets to show off her comedic timing.
Late Night’s heart is ultimately in the right place, and at times it can be truly likable. It has a pair of really wonderful performances from both Emma Thompson and Mindy Kaling and a second act that, while a jarring shift from the first act, also has plenty of enjoyable jokes and finds the entire cast at its most likable. However, the film also tends to explore a lot at once, and because of that, certain stories get quickly disposed of, the social commentary feels heavy-handed at times, and characterizations drastically shift at times without the best explanation. When it hits, it certainly does hit, and it can be really enjoyable, it’s just unfortunate that its aim is a bit scattershot. This may have been a really fun miniseries for Hulu or Netflix so that it had more time to spend with the characters and make the story more satisfying. As a film though, while it’s fun at times, it tends to be a bit all over the place.
Recommendation: Proceed With Caution
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