A late-night talk-show host suspects that she may soon lose her long-running show.
I’ve long admired Mindy Kaling’s irreverent wit, charm, and bluntness. Her early appearances in Judd Apatow’s fare, as well as TV’s “The Office” (some of the episodes of which she also penned) signified the arrival of a new comedic talent. Though on the fence about “The Mindy Project” (I find the twee nature and self-indulgence of that show grating), I was eagerly anticipating her next, real, project.
It comes in the somewhat unexpected pairing of Kaling with the living legend Emma Thompson in Nisha Ganatra’s melodramatic comedy “Late Night,” which the former wrote and the latter anchors. Frequently flirting with piano-scored sentimentality, the feature nonetheless displays a more mature, affecting side of Kaling, chockfull of terrific one-liners and relevant messages that are thankfully not (entirely) hammered into our heads. It tells a progressive story in an endearingly conventional fashion.
The plot in a nutshell: Her ratings gradually plummeting over the course of a decade, late night host Katherine Newbury (Thompson) faces imminent replacement by millennial-magnet Daniel Tennant (Ike Barinholtz). To appease her boss Caroline (Amy Ryan) and boost the show’s ratings, the old-school Katherine has to reconfigure her entire disposition. So she hires the inexperienced Molly (Mindy Kaling) to “spice up” the proceedings and dilute her toxic, white male environment with a forward-thinking woman of color. The acerbic Katherine makes mincemeat out of the intelligent-but-reserved Molly at first, but… well, you can probably guess where the story goes.
Sometimes, it’s not about the journey, it’s about the destination. Kaling, along with Ganatra, who’s known for her work on TV’s “Transparent” and “Better Things,” pepper the otherwise-conventional, glossy Hollywood narrative with moments of true subtlety and, dare I say, wisdom. The film moves briskly, and though it may evaporate from your mind days after you see it, a pleasant puff of vapor trail will remain.
Channeling Meryl Streep’s Miranda Priestly – but with a softer, comedic edge – Thompson is expectedly spectacular. Kaling graciously writes her all the best lines – none of which I’ll spoil here – and the stalwart delivers them with the razor sharpness of an obsidian blade. John Lithgow imbues the proceedings with some extra weight and eloquence as Katherine’s Parkinsons-stricken husband Walter.
During our tumultuous times, the need for escapism is more powerful than ever. “Late Night” provides just that, with intermittent traces of real depth and insight, thanks to its director, writer, and formidable lead. Jimmy Kimmel and Fallon may be more relevant than ever, but you’ll be better off watching those women’s “Late Night” instead.
In theaters Friday, June 7th
