Review:
"Late Night"
Release Date: June 14, 2019
Rating: R Running Time: 102 minutes The lack of representation on late-night programming on the Big Three television networks remains troubling. ABC and CBS do not seem committed to hiring anyone but white men to host the talk shows that air immediately before or after midnight. Yes, NBC will replaceLast Call with Carson Dalyin September with A Little Late with Lilly Singh, but the Indo-Canadian comedian will be stuck with a show that will air at 1:35 a.m. eastern/12:35 p.m. central. Who knows, maybe this will put Singh in line to inherit the timeslot currently occupied by Late Night with Seth Meyers, but that’s probably some years away. So the Emma Thompson-Mindy Kaling two-hander Late Nightserves as an obvious but still-needed reminder that late-night network television is the ultimate old white boys club. What’s interesting about Late Night—written by Kaling and directed by television veteran Nisha Ganatra—is that it positions the only woman talk-show host on late-night network television as a Jay Leno- esque middle-of-the-road relic with a British superiority complex that keeps hurting her show and her ratings. Katherine Newbury (Thompson) operates within a bubble she has created for herself in a bland television studio in New York to the point that she doesn’t even interact with her writers. She is more concerned with keeping her shrinking audience comfortable than revealing anything about herself or her political views on the air. Newbury has not blazed a trail for women in her chosen field, especially when it comes to own show. Women staff writers do not last long with Newbury. She has a problem with women, but Late Nightdoesn’t delve too deep into the reasons for this for fear of making the stern, distance, and demanding Newbury even less likable than she is when she is first introduced. Enter the ever-optimistic Molly Patel (Kaling). Hired as a new staff writer, Patel is viewed as nothing more than a “diversity hire” and that her lack of experience in professional comedy makes no difference because she’s not expected to last longer than a punchline. When Newbury is informed she is about to be replaced by a younger and more aggressive male comedian, Newbury demands her writers to come up with funnier and relevant material so she can keep her show. Patal views this as an opportunity not just to prove her worth but to force Newbury out of her comfort zone. That Newbury is not presented as a true pioneer and perfect role model makes Late Nightall the more fascinating. Late Nightprojects a sense that the once-edgy Newbury veered over to and stayed in the middle lane in order to keep a large enough audience to remain on the air. It is unspoken that if Newbury failed early, and was yanked off the air, then it would prove to be a setback for other women. It’s no different than when Hollywood puts a woman in director’s jail after an expensive flop but will continue to hire a white man even after a series of box office bombs. Late Nightmakes it clear that women in the entertainment industry are held to such higher standards than a man that failure simply isn’t an option. This has resulted in Newbury refusing to take risk or to reveal her true self to her viewers. Late Nightamusingly juxtapositions what Newbury has become against what Patel wants to be. She is young, naïve, and easily dismissed by her colleagues. Patel knows this, ignores this, and listens to her heart. She believes in herself as much as she believes in her idol Newbury, and she cannot but help speak her mind even if it offends her boss’ sensibilities. Kaling employs Patel’s conflicted feelings of being a “diversity hire” as an undeniable motivating force against the prevalent attitude that Patal doesn’t have what it takes to be on the show. Kaling and director Nisha Ganatra gradually and convincingly show that Newbury needs Patal as much as Patel needs Newbury. There’s much salient workplace humor derived from the pithy back and forth between the austere Thompson and the relentlessly bright and sunny Kaling, which touches upon everything from generational differences to cultural expectations and style to gender politics. Kaling makes for a cheerful and charming disruptive force. Humanizing Newbury is no small task for Late Night: there is nothing about Newbury that indicates she is open to change, even when her job is on the line. But Thompson never makes us forget the situation that Newbury is in, and that it is ingrained in her that the only way to survive in a male-dominated landscape to be tougher, stronger, and more relentless than any man in her business. But Late Nightalso pushes Newbury hard through Patel to understand that we are no longer in the 1990s and that it is incumbent upon Newbury not only to change her style of comedy but to also recognize she is not an ally to the women trying to break into her industry. Kaling and director Nisha Ganatra stumble, though, when they introduce a #MeToo subplot late in the proceedings. It’s understandable why Kaling and Ganatra feel compelled to address inappropriate workplace behavior given the terrible revelations and accusations coming out weekly from Hollywood since the Harvey Weinstein scandal broke in 2017. They want to make the point that no one is above reproach. Unfortunately, Kaling and Ganatra are too close to the character in question to really hold them accountable for their past actions. It also is unclear whether Kaling and Ganatra consider the reaction to the scandal hypocritical in light of the preparator and the circumstances. Either way, this subplot is intended to force the character to confront past mistakes and errors in judgment, but it does not have any impact on their fate. It is a poorly handled attempt to inject a topical issue into Late Night. Of course, this does not negate all the good that comes out of Late Night. Most important, Kaling and Ganatra argue that the Big Three television networks must offer late-night programming to a diverse audience that wants and demands representation. To twist Patal’s words around, enough with the “very old” and the “very white.” Robert Sims Aired: June 13, 2019 Web site: https://www.latenight.movie |
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