{"id":18471,"date":"2019-06-13T13:28:52","date_gmt":"2019-06-13T20:28:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=18471"},"modified":"2019-06-13T13:28:52","modified_gmt":"2019-06-13T20:28:52","slug":"the-host-of-late-night-steals-the-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=18471","title":{"rendered":"The Host of LATE NIGHT Steals the Show"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Most late-night shows look like smoothly produced and\neffortless exercises in entertainment, bringing stand-up and celebrity guests\ntogether and speaking about latest projects and topics of the day. Of course,\nit’s an immense amount of work for the host and even more so for the writers\ntasked with creating talking points almost nightly for a national market. The\nnew comedy Late Night<\/em> attempts to shed some light into the process and\none woman’s attempt to fulfill her aspirations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Chemical plant worker Molly Patel (Mindy Kaling) has always\ndreamed of being a comedy writer and after talking to a company head who also\nowns a TV network, is given an interview in New York City\nto create jokes for late night show host Katherine Newbury (Emma Thompson). Newbury,\nwhose ratings are falling and has a notorious reputation as being a cutthroat\nand vicious boss, is also taking heat for having an all-male staff. She agrees\nto add Molly to the team as a diversity hire, who soon feels the pressure of\nwriting for a comedy program, along with the ire of fellow employees like\nmonologue scribe Tom Campbell (Reid Scott). However, Molly’s positive attitude\neventually pays out, winning over members of the crew as she attempts to help\nher temperamental boss stay relevant to audiences and adapt to new trends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The main character may be Molly, but the most entertaining\nrole is clearly Newbury. The host is so acerbic and hard-nosed as she insults\nand takes down members of her crew and staff that she demands attention.\nThompson is exceptional in the role, making the stand-offish figure both\nsharp-tongued, threatening and somehow likable. Some of her tendencies,\nincluding calling writers by an assigned number instead of having to remember\ntheir names, are particularly amusing. As the story progresses, reasons are\nopined for her cool demeanor and the performer does a wonderful job of\ndisplaying how a work-obsessed personality in the spotlight can soon begin to\ntake out her frustrations and insecurities on others. This part is the film’s\ntrue stand out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kaling acquits herself well as Molly, displaying all the\nhighs and lows as well as hurt feelings that go into having such a crucial role\non the show. The sweet-natured character also gets in a few jabs from her\nsexist coworkers and makes some points at the expense of the nastiness and\ncompetitiveness of the business as the need for a ratings boost becomes more\nand more important. She is certainly a congenial enough lead, although some of\nthe naivety comes across as a little too forced. It seems impossible to believe\nthat anyone would be so surprised and taken aback by the behavior witnessed in this\nfast-paced, high-stress working environment, or be so blunt and oblivious in\noffering critiques of what may not be working on the show. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the movie follows a very routine format, bringing up\nsome interesting situations involving the workplace, only to deal with them in far\ntoo glossy and superficial a manner. Viewers can rest assured that every single\none of the concerns raised are dealt with and resolved within the running time,\nleaving the fictional world in a happier place. Honestly, it seems a strange and\ninauthentic call given the harshness and tears suffered through the first half\nof the feature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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While these aspects are too conventional for their own good,\nat least Emma Thompson is consistently thrilling to watch as the talk show\nhost, offering up entertaining vitriol and bite regularly during the running\ntime. In fact, one wishes that she had been an even nastier adversarial force\nfor the protagonist to overcome and wear down. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Late Night<\/em> has some predictable elements and doesn’t feel quite as cutting as it might have if it had decided to really shatter some of the illusions about working on a TV show, but it does have a magnetic and engaging co-lead that provides the movie with a great deal of tension, awkwardness and humor whenever she’s onscreen. It may not win the ratings battle, but it does score some points when it’s at its most finely tuned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most late-night shows look like smoothly produced and effortless exercises in entertainment, bringing stand-up and celebrity guests together and speaking about latest projects and topics of the day. Of course, it’s an immense amount of work for the host and even more so for the writers tasked with creating talking points almost nightly for a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":18476,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[197,4660,6251,6944,12120,12121,12122,12123,14001,16827,19552,23375],"class_list":["post-18471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-197","tag-comedy","tag-drama","tag-emma-thompson","tag-late-night","tag-late-night-film-review","tag-late-night-movie-review","tag-late-night-review","tag-mindy-kaling","tag-reid-scott","tag-talk-show","tag-tv"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18471\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}