☆☆
Amazon Studios produced Late Night, and it's a movie that may play much better on TV than on the big screen, because at least on TV you can turn it off. It's a toothless movie that exerts massive effort to be sweet and effervescent, like the character Mindy Kaling so frequently writes and plays -- which is exactly what she does here.
Maybe the origins of Late Night are Kaling's own experiences working in television, but they could also be in too many repeat viewings of The Devil Wears Prada. Late Night presents one of its two main characters, Emma Thompson's Katherine Newbury as a late-night TV talk-show-host version of Meryl Streep as Miranda Priestly, while Kaling herself co-stars as the eager, put-upon, endlessly harassed young outsider who thinks she can change things.
The trouble is, the screenplay won't commit to making Thompson's character vile, and Thompson isn't convincing as a talk-show host -- particularly one who is allegedly America's favorite. She's dull and humorless, and of her all-white-male writing staff men, only one (John Early) shows even glimmers of comedic ability.
Like Katherine Newbury, Late Night wants to be topical, prickly and cutting, but it's bland and choppy -- some scenes last just a couple of moments. Neither woman has much of a character to play, and Kaling's chipper appeal doesn't seem to run deeper than surface-level. There are a few jokes that land, but just a precious few, and that just isn't enough.
Viewed June 7, 2019 -- ArcLight Hollywood
2015
Maybe the origins of Late Night are Kaling's own experiences working in television, but they could also be in too many repeat viewings of The Devil Wears Prada. Late Night presents one of its two main characters, Emma Thompson's Katherine Newbury as a late-night TV talk-show-host version of Meryl Streep as Miranda Priestly, while Kaling herself co-stars as the eager, put-upon, endlessly harassed young outsider who thinks she can change things.
The trouble is, the screenplay won't commit to making Thompson's character vile, and Thompson isn't convincing as a talk-show host -- particularly one who is allegedly America's favorite. She's dull and humorless, and of her all-white-male writing staff men, only one (John Early) shows even glimmers of comedic ability.
Like Katherine Newbury, Late Night wants to be topical, prickly and cutting, but it's bland and choppy -- some scenes last just a couple of moments. Neither woman has much of a character to play, and Kaling's chipper appeal doesn't seem to run deeper than surface-level. There are a few jokes that land, but just a precious few, and that just isn't enough.
Viewed June 7, 2019 -- ArcLight Hollywood
2015
No comments:
Post a Comment