Office alum Mindy Kaling pulls from personal experience in her script for Late Night, the story of TV host Katherine Newbury (Emma Thompson), whose world is rocked by a "diversity hire" on the writing staff—Kaling's Molly Patel. The flick has a 77% rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes as of this writing. What critics are saying:
- "Who better than Mindy Kaling to script a comedy-drama about the pitfalls and privilege of the male-dominated media?" writes Ben Travis at Empire. It's "a smart piece of work … providing a steady stream of warm and witty gags, even if it lacks belly laughs." But with competing storylines, it's unclear which makes up the film's "true emotional core."
- "Director Nisha Ganatra nimbly mixes classic rom-com tropes with fresher ideas on race, class, and the tangled ideologies of modern feminism" in this "breezy, uneven comedy," writes Leah Greenblatt at Entertainment Weekly, finding fault in its "scattershot" tone. Still, Kaling and Thompson shine together, as does John Lithgow, in "a lovely, understated" role as Newbury's husband.