Movie Review

Missed opportunities in writers' room lower ratings for Late Night

The dearth of female late-night talk show hosts has been noticeable for many years, but it has taken on extra significance lately. So when Mindy Kaling, who’s displayed sharp writing on both The Office and The Mindy Project, decided to take the issue head-on with Late Night, with no less than Emma Thompson in a lead role, expectations were high.

Thompson plays Katherine Newbury, the longtime host of Tonight with Katherine Newbury. Faced with sagging ratings and a general sense of being out of touch with the zeitgeist, Newbury orders her executive producer, Brad (Denis O’Hare), to hire a woman to diversify her all-white, all-male writing team. Enter Molly Patel (Kaling), a chemical plant worker who finds out about the job opening thanks to some corporate synergy.

Patel is bubbly and idealistic, traits which clash with the cynical writing team and the standoffish Newbury. But as Patel continues to bring a new perspective to the daily grind that comes with writing a talk show, she slowly but surely starts to earn the respect of her fellow writers and Newbury, even if that respect doesn’t come in the form she expects.

Written by Kaling and directed by TV veteran Nisha Ganatra, the film moves at a pace that is unexpectedly fast, skipping many narrative steps along the way. Many scenes move at such breakneck speed that the audience barely has time to register what happened before the film is on to something else. The cost of such a strategy is that connections between characters are lost, denying them and the audience the emotions that are earned when a film spends more time establishing relationships.

Certain other narrative choices feel like missed opportunities, as well. Most prominent is Patel being a novice writer working in an unrelated field instead of being an underseen comedian. It’s extremely odd that, given the number of female comedians in the world, the show wouldn’t automatically scour the comedy clubs around New York City for undiscovered talent instead of turning to someone with no experience whatsoever.

The cast, which also includes John Lithgow, Hugh Dancy, Ike Barinholtz, Amy Ryan, and more, makes the film pop even when the story is not up to snuff. The chemistry of the writing staff is palpable, and Thompson elevates every scene she’s in despite not being a natural comedian. Kaling is an appealing protagonist who’s easy to root for even though she wrote herself a relatively thin role.

Late Night had the potential to break out with some pointed commentary about how women are treated in the entertainment industry, but it falls short at almost every turn. Kaling is a true talent; it’s just too bad that this movie doesn’t demonstrate her unique ability.

Emma Thompson in Late Night.

Emma Thompson in Late Night

Photo by Emily Aragones, courtesy of Amazon Studios

Emma Thompson in Late Night.

Vinyl Record News

Dallas record store chain Josey Records spins new location in Garland

Josey Records

Josey Records

Vinyl at Josey Records

Dallas music maker Josey Records has extended its reach east: The record store chain, whose empire includes one of the largest single independent record stores in the U.S., has opened a location in Garland, at 1005 Northwest Hwy., at the intersection of Centerville Road, where it's selling its trademark assortment of vinyl records, CDs, cassettes, turntables, music posters, new releases, and music accessories.

This is the sixth location and the third in the Dallas area, joining the original in Farmers Branch which owners Waric Cameron and Luke Sardello opened in November 2014. They've since opened locations in Plano, Tulsa, Kansas City, and Vidalia, Missouri.

The original location is a giant place with 16,000 square feet devoted to vinyl, 45s, CDs, turntables, and T-shirts. They do a good job showcasing new releases and collector vinyl — they made CultureMap's list of 5 best places in Dallas to buy vinyl records — and are known to host album release and listening parties such as a recent blockbuster celebrating Linkin Park.

They made headlines in June 2020 when they acquired the vast musical inventory of Bill’s Records following the death of owner Bill Wisener; Cameron and Sardello both worked at Bill’s, and knew the sprawling collection first-hand.

"It has taken us years to even start going through it, but in last two years, we've made some headway," Cameron says. "Bill's has its own audience, so we created a specific Instagram account, just for Bill's Records merchandise called @billsrecordsvault."

They chose Garland because they saw it as an area that was under-served.

"There are very few record stores in that area of northeast Dallas, Casa View, Garland, Rockwall, Mesquite," Cameron says. "We have customers who live over there, so it seemed like a good place for a store."

The storefront they're in was most recently The Music Store, which sold and rented musical instruments and accessories; but coincidentally, it's next to an address that was once RPM Records, a hip record store from the '90s.

The Garland store follows the same model as their others: selling new and used records and merchandise, and buying used goods, as well.

"One thing that's cool is that each location takes on its own identity," he says. "We buy used CDs, vinyl records, cassettes — we're a used resale business — and what we buy from our customers dictates what that store becomes. For example, our Plano store has a lot of classic rock. So we're looking forward to seeing what Garland gravitates to."

Garland does have one thing that the other locations do not.

"Right now, Garland has this incredible collection of jazz," Cameron says. "We bought a great collection of jazz records — someone called and wanted to sell it. We get that a lot, we buy major collections from all over the U.S., we even make house calls. So we saved it for the Garland store."

Loading...