LATE NIGHT – Review by MaryAnn Johanson
Never mind blue genies and superpowered mutants and talking household pets. Here’s a real cinematic fantasy for ya: Imagine a world wherein a woman has been the host of a late-night talk show on a major American television network for 28 years. What a flight of fancy!
That’s the underlying premise of Late Night, and the 28-year-veteran of late-night TV is played by Emma Thompson… who is, to be fair, exactly the sort of woman who should have been enjoying such a long comedic tenure in America’s sleepytimeslot. The overlying premise is that, in an attempt to get her ratings mojo back and save her job — which the network is threatening to hand over to a truly awful younger male comic who is not worthy to lick her boots — Thompson’s Katherine Newbury hires a new writer who is the first to break the white-male wall of blandness that is her writers’ room. That new writer is Mindy Kaling’s Molly Patel, who seems like she might be a not-very-disguised version of Kaling’s real self. Continue reading…
EDITOR’S NOTE: Late Night is AWFJ’s Movie of the Week for June 21, 2019
