This is a spoiler free review of the film Late Night
Synopsis:
A late-night talk show host's world is turned upside down when she hires her first and only female staff writer. Originally intended to smooth over diversity concerns, her decision brings about unexpectedly hilarious consequences as the two women who are separated by culture and generation become united by their love of a biting punchline.
I was tempted to call this “The film that couldn’t decide”.
I’m extremely glad to see Mindy Kaling back on the screen as I feel it’s been a while. Her performance as Kelly Kapour on the US version of The Office grew to be one of my most enjoyed aspects of the show (granted in a sea of enjoyable aspects. Kaling also wrote some of my more enjoyed episodes of The Office. She left the show at just the right time and started to really put the steps in to make a mark of her own with The Mindy Project. Although admittedly, I couldn’t get past the first season, I see the show made it to six strong seasons. Honestly, good for Mindy. One of her strong suits is creating and developing interesting and engaging characters.
That’s a strong point for her new film Late Night. The film boasts a small but engaging cast of characters each with their own goal, ambition or purpose. The film explores the characters with a strong mix of comedy and drama. I’ll always expect a fun comedic romp with Kaling involved I genuinely did not expect to be on the literal edge of my seat as we explored the personal journey of Katherine Newbury(Emma Thompson) and Molly Patel(Kaling).
My only note with the film is that it genuinely seemed to have a strong purpose throughout the film, delivering raw emotions and character driven arcs only to put a pin in those arcs for a clean ending where everything can wrap into a bow. For a comedy film this would be totally fine and make a lot of sense. However, due to the dramedy nature of the film and the realistic, raw approach the film took to the character arcs, this just wasn’t the type of ending I was expecting. Like I said, I was tempted to call this “The film that couldn’t decide”.
I do recommend the film, it’s a good palate cleanser between releases of comic book films. However, you’re not missing anything to wait until it’s released to home media.
Rating: 3 Jimmy Fallons out of 5 John Olivers.
Image Source: EmpireOnline