Late Night Parent Guide

Late night television host Katherine Newbury (Emma Thompson) has hosted her hit show for thirty years. Her obsession with excellence has made her highly successful – but at a cost. She bullies her writing team (who are all male), refers to them by numbers because she can’t be bothered to learn their names, doesn’t notice when one of them dies, and fires them on a whim. In one darkly funny scene, she even terminates an employee who asks for a raise to support his growing family, comparing having children to a drug problem.

But Katherine’s disdain for her staff and unwillingness to listen to them has predictable results: falling ratings and a visit from the corporate head who informs her that she has become irrelevant and is being replaced as the host of her own show. Shocked and horrified, Katherine decides it’s time for major changes. After being labeled as a woman who hates women, she decides to hire a female writer to add diversity to her staff. Molly (Mindy Kaling) is a bright and hopeful chemical plant worker who wins a contest that lands her an interview. She becomes the “diversity hire”.

The rest of the film centers around Molly’s fight to find her place, prove herself in the writer’s room, and push Katherine to become more relatable to her viewers, while still being true to herself. And this is where Late Night shines. Its best takeaway is its message about integrity and authenticity. Is Molly willing to sacrifice her principles to succeed? Is Katherine capable of opening up to her colleagues and viewers and building a stronger program based on authenticity instead of contempt and superiority?

As an added bonus, Late Night has a strong subplot featuring Katherine’s relationship with her husband (John Lithgow). What would typically be a cheesy, romantic relationship in a rom-com is replaced with a sweet story of friendship and forgiveness. This is a great message for viewers of any age.

Unfortunately, while the film has solid messages about the values of diversity, achieving success through hard work, and being true to yourself, it suffers from a significant profanity problem. Late Night has at least 50 completely unnecessary swear words, including over two dozen sexual expletives. The movie also features frequent scenes of characters drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes to handle stress. And this is unfortunate. Careful editing could easily have given Late Night a PG-13 rating and exposed teen viewers to its positive messages. But, in its current form Late Night simply demonstrates lazy writing with profanity replacing more nuanced dialogue. And that isn’t funny.