Late Night

"Late Night" pits two-time Academy Award� winner Emma Thomson and Boston's own Mindy Kaling against Hollywood standards in a fight to the finish. Thompson plays Katherine Newbury, a hardened late night TV host. Kaling plays Molly Patel, a diversity hire with a brain of gold. "Late Night" is the first feature film from from Emmy-nominated writer, actor and producer Mindy Kaling. It is directed by Nisha Ganatra ("Chutney Popcorn," "Brooklyn Nine-Nine"). "Late Night" hits select theatres on June 7, 2019. It arrives in Boston theatres on June 14, 2019.

Katherine Newbury (Thompson) is accused of hating women in her writer's room after receiving a lifetime achievement award for hosting her late night TV show. Molly Patel (Kaling) is hired in a heat-of-the-moment decision by staff manager Brad (Dennis O'Hare). Molly is ushered into the all-male writer's room to shake up the failing TV show. When their livelihood is threatened by a corporate decision to fire Katherine and hire a new male host – shock-jock comedian Daniel Tennant (Ike Barinholtz) – Katherine and Molly join forces to prevent the takeover. John Lithgow plays Newbury's sensitive husband, Walter.

"Late Night" transforms the traditional romcom trope and subverts the patriarchal paradigm by redistributing storytelling power from male executives to female coworkers. This movie is still a love story, but the subject is platonic, rather than romantic, love. Emma Thompson plays a virago in the style of "The Devil Wears Prada"'s Miranda Priestly; Newbury is edgy, sarcastic and angry in designer shoes and coats. Mindy Kaling's Molly plays Thompson's foil: also edgy but sweet, and tirelessly sincere. A movie written by a typical male Hollywood screenwriter would have made Newbury a man. They would have fallen in love by the end of act one. That both characters are women creates a dynamic unique within Hollywood: These women take the opportunity to know, and eventually respect, each other as colleagues. It is the secondary and tertiary male characters that remain flat and flimsy for a change.

This movie's writing will appeal to a wide demographic, but may disturb white, cis men. Kaling's script doesn't allow the men in Newbury's writing room to get away with bro behavior without consequences. The audience is warned that it's a sausage fest in the writer's room; they are as unwelcoming of Patel as possible within HR regulations. When Patel is called a diversity hire to her face, she quips that a diversity hire is better than a nepotism hire. Other dialogue has the white, male writers crying "misandry" when Patel gains the upper hand. These teaching moments fuel her eventual success as contributing writer.

"Late Night" is a well-written film about working while female. It is cleverly written – it doesn't pander to its audience – and funny as hell, and more diverse than anything else currently on the market. "Late Night" is a movie written, directed and produced by women. It doesn't force feed its audience what it thinks women want. It gives women what they actually want: quality content, stories we can identify with, and humor that punches up.