Film - Late Night

With Late Night, we an dive right into The Devil Wears Prada comparison. This time it’s late-night TV rather than a fashion magazine with another Brit making it big in New York. (If Devil is indeed a depiction of Vogue’s Anna Wintour as per all the talk)

Emma Thompson plays the talk show host Katherine Newbury who is told to do something to halt the decade-long rating decline to keep her job. (Come to think of it, Monster-In-Law springs to mind) It’s decided she needs more diversity in her all-male white writer's room and Molly Patel (the film’s writer Mindy Kalin) is hired for her while under pressure to deliver a new recruit. She has absolutely no experience although idolises former stand-up comedian, Newbury, and as a bonus, is Indian so two diversity ticks. Only in American films do employers seem to disregard the reading CVs stage as everyone gets an interview. But don’t let that put you off as they could have easily just had lied on your CV to get an interview.

There are other cliques where you need to suspend disbelief (she’ll date/sleep with at least one of her colleagues, she’ll get fired at some point, her parents wanted her to become a doctor. Or I may have made that last one up) although it was nice to see their inevitable friendship that started on the wrong foot grow.  Of course, there’s the inevitable resistance from the thus far all-male writers team and that’s set up within the trailer.

Late Night skips along at a good pace with two great leading ladies shining bright against a dearth of decent males characters. You’ll barely look at your watch or reach for the M&Ms.

 7½/10