Late Night
Entertainment One | Release Date: June 7, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
70
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 46 Critic Reviews
Positive:
31
Mixed:
14
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranJun 5, 2019
Late Night is that rare thing: a deft and intelligent entertainment that can touch on serious issues because being funny is something it never forgets to do. Read full review
88
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldJun 13, 2019
Like Kaling’s Molly, Late Night is immensely likable; so much so that you wish it were perfect. Read full review
88
Washington PostAnn HornadayJun 11, 2019
Late Night turns out to be an enormously pleasing fable about liberating oneself from the need to please. Like all comedians worth their salt, Kaling sets out to kill — but with kindness. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyJun 7, 2019
Late Night comes directly from Kaling's own experiences. This is an earnest and funny comedy, with very sharp teeth. Read full review
83
IndieWireKate ErblandFeb 1, 2019
Late Night smartly sends up not just the cloistered world of late night television, but a current cultural climate struggling to evolve in a changing world. Read full review
80
TimeStephanie ZacharekJun 8, 2019
It has the wiggy energy of a workplace that might sometimes drive you crazy, but is never boring. This is a great workplace comedy about the ways in which people who seem to be holding you back can also, sometimes, be the ones pushing you forward. Crawling under your desk gets you nowhere. It also means you miss all the fun. Read full review
80
TheWrapYolanda MachadoJun 7, 2019
A witty, intelligent, and entertaining view behind the scenes of a late-night talk show. Read full review
80
The New York TimesA.O. ScottJun 5, 2019
Every time you think Late Night is settling into familiar tropes — about workplace politics, mean bosses, long marriages, fish out of water, bootstraps and how to pull them — it shifts a few degrees and finds a fresh perspective. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawJun 5, 2019
At heart, Late Night is a romcom and like so many romcoms, the funny stuff recedes after the first act, as the plot and its relatability imperative gets into gear. Yet Kaling is very good at conveying the paradoxical misty-eyed idealism of those working for this long-running TV institution. Read full review
80
Rolling StonePeter TraversJun 4, 2019
Thompson, Kaling and up-for-anything director Nisha Ganatra spin comic gold. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)Emily YoshidaFeb 1, 2019
What makes Late Night — otherwise a largely predictable story in a familiar mold — really pop is Kaling’s script, which is at the blunter and frankly more exciting spectrum of what Kaling has proven herself to be capable of in her writing career thus far. Read full review
80
UproxxMike RyanFeb 1, 2019
Late Night is going to wind up being one of the best comedies of 2019. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerJun 5, 2019
Thompson and Kaling spark, while still leaving space for the rest of the cast to deliver blissful, blistering one-liners (I, Tonya's Hauser predictably steals the show there as the dopey gag writer Mancuso) and moments of true pathos (most especially from Lithgow as Katherine's ever-supportive husband). Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleAug 2, 2019
Late Night is a fairly agreeable experience, and every time Thompson is on screen, there’s a reason to keep watching. Read full review
75
ConsequenceAllison ShoemakerJun 13, 2019
It’s winning enough that you can spot its flaws and still don’t really care. Much of that is due to Kaling’s script, and particularly her writing for Thompson, who gets a role worthy of her dramatic talents, and her oft-underused expert timing. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrJun 12, 2019
Don’t be surprised if you come out wishing that there actually were a late-night comedy show starring Emma Thompson instead of just a movie about one. Read full review
75
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiJun 6, 2019
Kaling’s script addresses issues such as sexism in the #MeToo era, ageism and racial prejudice in her disarmingly light and sneaky way. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattJun 6, 2019
The best scenes in Late Night are consistently the ones where the movie’s main stars spar and banter and intermittently connect; two unlikely satellites smashing into each other’s orbits, and maybe finding themselves in the wreckage. Read full review
75
USA TodayBrian TruittJun 6, 2019
Unlike the corner of the entertainment industry it tackles, Mindy Kaling’s quick-witted screenplay for “Late Night” doesn’t go for cheap laughs, but instead wields incisive barbs to successfully make its point. Read full review
75
The PlaylistGregory EllwoodFeb 1, 2019
The combination of Thompson’s sharp delivery and Kaling’s commercially friendly script make the film’s charms hard to resist. Read full review
75
Vanity FairRichard LawsonFeb 1, 2019
It’s a genial, funny movie, not a mile-a-minute behind-the-cameras gag-fest (hyphens!) like 30 Rock, but an amiable workplace comedy that finds personal definition in its influences. Read full review
73
Paste MagazineOktay Ege Kozak Jun 13, 2019
Director Nisha Ganatra, who also comes from TV, doesn’t really create a cinematic experience that begs to be seen on the big screen, but treats the characters and the setting with enough depth to breathe life into an otherwise tired project. Read full review
70
VoxAlissa WilkinsonJun 3, 2019
Late Night feels underwritten in some spots, but it’s surprising in others — an unfussy, entertaining comedy with some serious matters on its mind. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyFeb 1, 2019
Diverting and for the most part agreeably amusing, Late Night is about as mainstream and conventional a movie as could be made right now about the timely issues of women and minorities finding equal footing in the workplace. Read full review
70
VarietyOwen GleibermanFeb 1, 2019
The film wants to be a puckish media satire and an earnest workplace dramedy about “growing,” and the fusion doesn’t always gel. Read full review
70
Film ThreatMatthew PassantinoFeb 1, 2019
The rapport between Thompson and Kaling, along with the entire supporting cast, make Late Night a lively and entertaining workplace comedy with its finger on the pulse of today’s entertainment industry. Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerJun 7, 2019
Kaling’s naive earnestness in the role is very winning, and Thompson makes her boss lady clichés seem almost fresh. Not quite fresh enough, though, to rescue the movie. Read full review
63
Philadelphia Daily NewsGary ThompsonJun 13, 2019
The movie mainly rides on the chemistry and charm of its two leads, and writer Kaling has given Thompson a substantial character to play. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzJun 13, 2019
The best thing about Late Night, a new comedy about modern office life, is that it could be set in almost any workplace and still feel mostly sharp and entirely necessary. The worst thing about Late Night is that it’s set in the world of late-night television. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJun 11, 2019
Amiable if frustrating picture. Read full review
63
The Associated PressJake CoyleJun 7, 2019
It’s an admirably fun and light movie about more serious issues of representation and equality. Read full review
60
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeJun 18, 2019
The lack of diversity in entertainment is an open goal, long overdue for a skewering. But rather than kicking over the traces of the patriarchal establishment, the film ends up just giving it a playful tickle. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBarbara VanDenburghJun 13, 2019
It’s ironic that a film about bucking formula is itself so formulaic. There’s nothing wrong with such inoffensive pleasantness, but if Late Night wants to advocate setting fire to the system in pursuit of more meaningful art, it should have led the charge. Read full review
60
CNNBrian LowryJun 7, 2019
There's a good movie to be made about a woman wading into late-night TV's headwinds -- both in front of and behind the curtain. Despite solid moments, Late Night isn't consistently it. Read full review
60
SlateInkoo KangJun 5, 2019
Late Night suggests that Kaling is as fascinated as ever not by the girl next door but by powerful, unruly women — and the unconventional love stories befitting their willful, idiosyncratic selves. But the film may be most notable for its summation of the thinking and rethinking that Kaling has done about her 15 years in Hollywood — and how to fight to change it. Read full review
60
EmpireBen TravisJun 3, 2019
Late Night is sharply written and warmly enjoyable, with Kaling and Thompson on endearing form. But a few extra knock-out gags and a clearer focus would really help it in the ratings. Read full review
60
Time OutTomris LafflyFeb 3, 2019
The most radical observation Late Night makes concerns the extreme maleness of showbiz that turns women into rivals. But the film brushes over this insight and ultimately falls short of even its more modest intentions. Read full review
60
The GuardianBenjamin LeeFeb 1, 2019
Arguably the film’s biggest problem is that it’s less laugh-out-loud hilarious and more deserving of the odd casual smirk. Read full review
58
Original-CinKaren GordonJun 13, 2019
Late Night is a light-hearted comedy with something to say and an excellent cast, that is unfortunately hobbled by a storyline that doesn’t quite add up. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerJun 3, 2019
Late Night is admirably eager to address the messy problems of the comedy world, but it ultimately can’t stop cleaning up after itself. Read full review
50
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenOct 3, 2019
The real problem, however, is that neither Molly, nor Newbury, nor anyone on her staff is very funny. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreJun 15, 2019
There are laughs, here and there, and bursts of fun. But picking over one’s notes and picking apart a picture which offers no real third act surprises (Well, Seth Meyers shows up.) and not an over-abundance of laughs one is left grasping at the depressingly obvious moral to the tale. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)Angelica Jade BastienJun 13, 2019
Even the film’s most charming character work is undone by the stale jokes that populate its script. Read full review
50
The Film StageDan MeccaFeb 1, 2019
When Thompson and Kaling are playing off each other, Late Night sings. That so much of it is focused elsewhere feels like a miscalculation. Read full review
40
Screen DailyAnthony KaufmanFeb 1, 2019
Thompson delivers a memorable performance as the abrasive “cold witch,” as someone describes her, perhaps even outdoing Meryl Streep’s Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wars Prada as a delightfully wicked woman of power. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineJake ColeJun 6, 2019
The film lacks for the more lacerating, freely parodic energy of The Larry Sanders Show and 30 Rock. Read full review
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