Nisha Ganatra (The High Note) tries a tried-and-true formula with a slight twist in Late Night. The Emma Thompson (Howard’s End, Sense and Sensibility) dramedy focuses on her career as an acclaimed late-night talk show host who may be nearing the end of her career after plummeting ratings in recent months/years. Flanked by an all-white male writing staff, Katherine Newberry’s (Thompson) material has become predictably stale.

While much of that probably has to do with the writers’ groupthink, Katherine seems unwilling to take any blame. So, to mix things up, she hires a young Indian woman named Molly (Mindy Kaling, NBC’s The Office, Fox’s The Mindy Project) to infuse new life into her show. It doesn’t take much to see that Molly does just that, while overcoming astigmatism and a few hiccups. Late Night is not a bad movie. It’s just a very predictable movie you’ll likely forget about within a few days or weeks of seeing it.

Katherine is not the most likable person in the world. She can be cold-hearted and downright cruel, identifying her staff by number because she has little interest in their names or anything about them. She’s an old-school Brit who cares less about social media, refuses to meet her self-defined standards, and doesn’t mind critics calling her a snoot. But she does care about declining ratings and the impending talk of her being replaced, especially by the younger, brash Daniel Tennant (Ike Barinholtz) and his frat-boy humor, which Katherine finds repulsive. So she’s willing to do whatever it takes to keep her job, including a “diversity hire” in Molly. I’m uncertain whether she’s as opposed to Molly’s presence as she is ignorant of the need for a diversified staff. What worked for parts of the past 30 years has slowly given way to shows that are more current and in tune with viewers.

But now that Molly is here, her goal is to stay. Though she’s on a three-month internship-type hire, this is her dream job, and she wants to make it permanent. That means impressing Catherine and breaking down stereotypes within her team’s culture. As mentioned, it’s easy to figure out what will happen. After all, it’s a heartfelt comedy at its core, though Kaling’s acting and writing tackle some critical issues effectively (she helped create the script for this movie).

No characters stand out outside of Catherine and Molly in this movie. Each man on Catherine’s writing team is lost in the shuffle, which isn’t entirely bad since the movie is far less about them and far more about Molly trying to impress Catherine and everyone else at Late Night. Still, it’s worth mentioning in this far-from-perfect movie.

Late Night is a cute movie, but it’s not a must-see. However, you could do much worse with a less-than-stellar 2019.

Plot 7.5/10
Character Development 7.5/10
Character Chemistry 7.5/10
Acting 7.5/10
Screenplay 8.5/10
Directing 7.5/10
Cinematography 6.5/10
Sound 6.5/10
Hook and Reel 7.5/10
Universal Relevance 7.5/10
74%

C

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