Late Night (2019)

Directed by: Nisha Ganatra | 102 minutes | comedy, drama | Actors: Emma Thompson, Mindy Kaling, John Lithgow, Hugh Dancy, Reid Scott, Denis O’Hare, Max Casella, Paul Walter Hauser, John Early, Jia Patel, Luke Slattery, Ike Barinholtz, Marc Kudisch, Amy Ryan, Megalyn Echikunwoke

‘The Tonight Show’, ‘The Late Show’, ‘The Late Late Show’, ‘The Daily Show’. The titles of American late night talk shows are not exactly original, but by reinventing themselves every now and then, putting forward a different presenter or hiring a different team of (comedy) writers, it remains TV. genre continues to be popular in the United States. Illustrious hosts from the past like Jimmy Carson, David Letterman, Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien built their entire career around it. Comedians – almost all talk show hosts in America are comedians – such as Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers and the British John Oliver and James Corden have now taken over. You hardly see women. Whoopi Goldberg once tried it, as did Joan Rivers, Mo’Nique, Kathy Griffin and Wanda Sykes, among others. But none of them lasted more than two seasons. How different it is for Katherine Newbury (Emma Thompson), the fictional talk show queen from the delightful satirical comedy ‘Late Night’ (2019). She has been at the top for 27 years, as a British woman in a world dominated by American men. She won Emmy after Emmy and successfully brought up many feminist views in her program. But after nearly three decades, serious hairline cracks have emerged in its status and reputation; where the public has moved with the times, Katherine got stuck in the nineties. Today’s viewer no longer wants to hear progressive ramblings from intelligent but extremely boring academics and writers, but light-hearted antics with YouTube stars. When studio boss Caroline Morton (Amy Ryan) threatens to throw her off the TV and replace her with the immensely popular but bland stand-upper Daniel Tennant (Ike Barinholtz) with Millennials, Katherine is desperate.

Only now is she confronted with the fact that she has been living with her head in the clouds for almost thirty years. She is full of women’s rights, but there is no woman on her team except for herself. She doesn’t talk very nice about other women (or anyone for that matter) at all, her loyal but ailing husband (John Lithgow) also notes. And so in her writing team – which now consists solely of white men (including Hugh Dancy, Reid Scott and Paul Walter Hauser) – room must be made for a woman, preferably one with a color to make it completely ‘politically correct’. to make. It doesn’t matter if she can write. And so, much to her own surprise, Molly Patel (Mindy Kaling) is hired. Previously she worked at a chemical company that falls under the same umbrella as the Newbury TV station, but she has been a fan of Katherine for years and aspires to a career as a stand-upper on a modest scale. Of course, she is looked down upon by the other writers, who sulk among themselves that every door in Hollywood will open for you if you are ‘a woman of color’. In that hostile atmosphere, and with a boss who doesn’t feel like memorizing names and so gives the writers all numbers to break them up, Molly has to make something of it. She tries to score points by making honest comments about the current approach, but is so naive that she doesn’t feel that it is not exactly well received. But a cornered cat makes weird jumps and because Katherine feels Damocles’ sword overhead, she’s forced to give even Molly a chance. Because she just might be the only one who knows how Katherine can save her show from ruin.

On paper, this sounds like a fairly predictable story of a young, colored woman who has to fight against prejudice, racism and sexism in the workplace, but manages to prove herself against all odds. In practice, however, ‘Late Night’ is much more than that. This is largely due to Kaling, who not only plays one of the lead roles but is also responsible for the script and is also on the role as producer. Kaling won Emmys for her writing on the American version of ‘The Office’ and has therefore more than proven herself, but here she dares to put in just a bit more sharply so that almost every blow is hit. Sometimes she uses the blunt ax again and she does that with great effect. And there’s always that cynical undertone, which forces you to look beyond that predictable plot that lies on the surface. What makes her screenplay even better is that she has developed her two main characters in such a complex way.

Katherine Newbury wrote them with Emma Thompson in mind and that is noticeable, because the role fits the British Oscar winner like a glove. Katherine is full of contradictions: she can be very funny, but deep down she is very unhappy. She is one of the most powerful women in Hollywood who has broken through walls but has become a soured relic of a bygone era. She is cold, distant and unfriendly, has slipped far away from the ideals she proclaims and sometimes makes unscrupulous choices in her life. Thanks to Thompson and Kaling, Katherine is not a caricature, but a flawed human being; the film even dares to explore why she has developed such an antipathy towards women. Opposite this is Kalings Molly, a woman who appears overly cheerful and optimistic but knows exactly how the world works and how to make herself useful. She certainly isn’t as naive as she appears, and that’s what makes her so endearing.

Thanks to a witty and razor-sharp script and two flawless protagonists, ‘Late Night’ manages to lift a fairly predictable story into an extremely enjoyable satire, which at times is reminiscent of ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ (2006), also about a ‘female boss from hell’. Although this film directed by Nisha Ganatra (‘The Mindy Project’) is much more personal, neurotic and urgent. Emma Thompson plays one of the best roles of her career (and that’s saying something!) in a film that goes a lot deeper and has more to say than you’d expect from the ‘packaging’. Who gives this woman her own talk show? Then please put Mindy Kaling next to it as a sidekick, because these two make a not to be missed duo!