Glenn Gavillion

This is pretty mediocre stuff. Shows like "Larry Sanders" and "30 Rock" have set a pretty high bar for behind-the-scenes comedies about making late night TV shows and "Late Night" falls well below that bar. With the dialogue, plot and directorial splendor of a made-for-TV basic cable romcom, "Late Night" manages to be neither particularly funny, dramatic or insightful. Predictable plot lines emerge and then are quickly resolved while none of the comedy bits or jokes on this supposed "Late Night" comedy show are funny - rather they seemingly exist for the audience to mod their head and think "I could see where a joke like that would be funny on a show like this if someone with talent actually wrote it." Most ploddingly, however, is the film's heavy handed attempts at breaking down male white privilege while at the same time giving a wink to the hypocrisies of political correctness. Both are worthy enough subjects but in this case the execution is so cliched and clumsy that the film stumbles and stops every time one of it's 2 female leads makes an often out-of-the-blue declarative statement about it. Emma Thompson is the saving grace of the movie, with a "Devil Wears Prada"-esque performance that rises well above the material while Mindy Kalling is likeable enough reprising yet another version of her character in "The Office." There is some chemistry between the 2 with a few laughs but by the time this movie trips it's way to the finish you don't much care what happens to Thompson's character nor Kalling's character, as her career is apparently set regardless of the future of the show. "Late Night" wants to make a statement but in the end falls as flat as a poor Jimmy Fallon monologue.