Late Night (2019)

A brilliant Emma Thompson shines as the prickly Katherine Newbury, always striving for excellence. But she's dated, her show, beyond stale and she's downright nasty at times, firing one of her writers because he asks for a raise as he and his wife just had a second baby but Katherine believes that this is a double standard. Why should he get a raise over his single co-workers?
Fortunately, Brad (Denis O'Hare) suggests that she hire a woman writer. Enter Molly (Mindy Kaling) who used to oversee production at a chemical plant. She is not greeted warmly, not even by Katherine who will soon be out of a job.
Molly eventually proves her worth, but Katherine is terrified of change and isn't extremely accepting of her new ideas. But Molly persists and even starts working on the monologue with one of the writers, Tom (Reid Scott) and starts a relationship with another writer and wannabe comedian, Charlie (Hugh Dancy), who proves to be a giant jackass. There is a brief scene between Charlie and Katherine at her dinner party that you must tuck away and remember it as it comes back later on.
So, there are several twists and turns along the way. Katherine refuses to give up her show to new age frat boy comedian, Danny Tennant (Ike Barinholtz) but that pisses off his agent so much he relieves that Katherine cheated on her sick husband (John Lithgow).
Despite being fired twice, Katherine can't live without Molly as Molly adores Katherine, underneath all the hatred. The film ends happily (I wonder if Charlie got canned, he sure should have) but Katherine is back on top of the ratings and there is plenty of diversity in the office and Molly is finally dating someone better, Tom, who may have been resentful of her at first (and boy, was he ever) but at least he doesn't just use women for sex, so that's something.
My main problem with the film is that Molly is mc'ing an event for lung cancer as that is the disease that killed her father but when she mentions that to Charlie, he literally has a cigarette in his fingers and Katherine also smokes when she gets super depressed. I feel that should have been treated with more sensitivity than it was, which is a shame as it was the biggest more glaring flaw in this otherwise completely solid film with great performances and good jokes. Grade: A-
Side Notes:
-How does Hugh Dancy get better looking with age?
-Amy Ryan is great in her small role as network executive.
-Social media is overrated but you need to do it to stay relevant.
-The scene where Tom visits Molly at her aunt and uncle's house in Queens could have been a lot funnier.
-I hope Molly finds an apartment with an elevator next time.
-Who would have thought a shoulder kiss could be so romantic?
-Also, we should have a woman with her own late night show, currently there aren't any.