Something great has been happening in comedies the last few years: Women who grew up watching the Nora Ephron comedies of the '80s and '90s realized Hollywood studios aren’t making movies like that anymore—comedies by and about women, where women are real characters and not just plot devices to advance a man’s growth—and they said fuck it, let’s make some! There have already been some excellent women-driven movies this year (Booksmart, Isn’t It Romantic), and now there's Late Night. The film stars Mindy Kaling (who also wrote the film) as a quality-control specialist at a chemical plant who ends up in the all-white, all-male writing room for a late-night TV host (Emma Thompson) who refuses to adapt even as her ratings tank. Will this plucky newcomer be the only person in the room with the power to mix! things! up?! Gee, I wonder! Look, Late Night is super predictable. But Kaling and Thompson are magnetic in everything they’re in, and they're more than capable of turning this otherwise light film into something not unlike the smart, mid-budget comedies Kaling and I grew up on. by Elinor Jones