This is the kind of movie the studios used to make before their empty heads were turned by the Chinese box office their superheroes are sucking up. Late Night is a biting satire worthy of the golden age of screwball comedy. Emma Thompson is brilliant as the legendary, hard-edged, acid-tongued talk show host. Think Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada. She is about to be replaced by a newer, shinier model—that is, until Mindy Kaling, who also wrote this movie, joins her writing staff and upends the conventions of late night television. Kaling’s snap and crackle script pops with so much vitality and is so dead-on it could serve as a template for comedy in a screenwriting class. The rest of the cast is outstanding as well, particularly John Lithgow, always a pleasure to watch. — Peter Biskind
With closed captioning on Monday, July 8 at 7:00pm
“Rather than scourging the complacency and hypocrisy of television, it subjects the medium to a vigorous exfoliating scrub in the name of feminism and inclusiveness.” — A.O. Scott, New York Times
“In Late Night, Emma Thompson and Mindy Kaling deliver sparkling wit and surprising sweetness… Like all comedians worth their salt, Kaling sets out to kill—but with kindness.” — Ann Hornaday, Washington Post
“Thompson is acidly hilarious as the only female host on late-night. When she brings in Mindy Kaling to diversify her all-white-dude writing staff, the two stars toss the verbal grenades in Kaling’s woke script like virtuosos.” — Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
Nisha Ganatra
Mindy Kaling (screenplay by)
Emma Thompson, Mindy Kaling, John Lithgow, Hugh Dancy
Amazon Studios