WORTH STAYING UP FOR

MOVIE
Late Night
Emma Thompson, Mindy Kaling
Director Nisha Ganatra
Review Ray Chan


James Corden must be wondering whether this is how US viewers perceive him.  
  Playing a haughty British late night host who scoffs at lesser mortals from her podium of privilege, Emma Thompson is Katherine Newbury, a woman whose show is a television fixture that has been on the decline for a decade, and the poor ratings show it, forcing the network to consider a replacement.
    Blindly led by an apathetic assortment of white male writers on autopilot, Katherine caves in to criticism that there are no women staff members, demanding that a female is employed to inject new life.
    Cue Molly Patel (Mindy Kaling), a young Indian-American chemical plant worker with aspirations to be a comedienne but without experience in network television, who gets fortuitously hired because the indolent chief writer can’t be bothered to interview anyone else.
    Somewhat predictably, Molly imbues fresh ideas which succeed, including getting Katherine to become more social-media savvy, and forcing the peremptory presenter to get over her dislike of leaving the studio — resulting in one particularly hilarious segment called White Savior, in which she braves the streets and hails cabs for black guys, whether they need them or not.
    In doing so, the format gets past the setup-punchline structure of the monologue joke that is a staple of talk shows, American or elsewhere.
    Who knows, it may even plant a seed in the writing rooms of the real TV programmers, encouraging them to go beyond the tightly-scripted speeches, because in all honesty, are they ever really funny?
    There are many other twists and turns to the story, of course, but the winning factor here is the chemistry between Thompson and Kaling, which makes them a lovable pair as they conspire, clash and come together to help restore Katherine’s popularity.
    As a woman of colour and herself a victim of sexism in the workforce, Kaling excels as the wide-eyed admirer who will do anything to help her childhood idol, yet who is also determined enough to stand for herself in a male-dominated world.
    Thompson, for her part, sparkles with her condescension and coldness, but with a surety that ensures her performance doesn’t descend into farce or caricature.
    And indeed, while her co-star supplies the kindling, it’s the veteran actress, flitting between arrogance and affection, who bellows the flames of the movie into something that’s slightly more than just an average sitcom.


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