Late Night (2019)

Katherine Newbury is not an easy person to work for.  When someone asks her for a raise, she fires him.  His main reason for asking is the birth of a child, who will contribute nothing to the show.  Also, most of her writing staff has never met her.  Many haven’t even seen the stage where she hosts her late-night talk show.

She’s pressured to add diversity to the writer’s room because all of her writers are white and male.  As luck would have it, Molly Patel is looking to become a writer for the show and happens to show up moments after an opening becomes available.  Yes, Molly does have comedic talent, but she’s coming from a chemical plant where she worked in quality control.

It’s a rough ride at first, but Molly starts to find her place.  She even gets a joke in the monologue after convincing Newbury to be more daring.   Success doesn’t last long for Molly.  She has to put up with seven men who aren’t happy to see her there.  Her boss doesn’t really much like her, either.  (Molly finds herself fired twice during the course of the movie.)

She’s also constantly reminded of the fact that she’s a diversity hire.  (The workplace is so dominated by men that they’ve taken to using the ladies’ room, as there are no women there.)  She’s faced with a choice, though.  She can concentrate on the ‘diversity’ aspect of her employment or she can focus on the ‘hire’ part of her employment.  She has the job she wanted.  Does it matter how?

Newbury also has some facts to face.  She’s trying to hold on to a show she’s been hosting for nearly 30 years.  She’s not willing to admit that she’s stuck in a rut.  Just because it was successful before doesn’t mean that it will connect with today’s audiences.  She’s not getting any tweets or followers on social media.  What she is getting is replaced and by a comedian who’s very crude.

The movie comes across as a showcase of problems in the motion-picture industry.  Male privilege, age discrimination and Tokenism are addressed.  None of it seems forced, though.  It’s more a way of using the movie as a way to introduce various talking points while not being too pointed about it.  (Molly finds herself crying in the ladies’ room until she’s kicked out by a man who needs use it.)

So, Newbury and Molly need each other.  They both have similar stories.  Each is trying to make it among a crowd of men.  Each has issues they have to face because of that.  Ultimately, each will succeed or fail on their own terms.

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Harry and the Hendersons (1987)

As a child, well before everyone had a decent camera in their phone, I thought it impossible that a creature like Bigfoot could go unnoticed.  You’d think with humanity constantly encroaching on every corner of the planet, someone would have found a Bigfoot community or something.  All we have are a few fuzzy photographs and vague molds of footprints of what people claim are the hairy cryptoid.  Yes, new species are discovered all the time, but nothing as big as this.  Thus, it comes as a surprise when the Henderson family hits one with their car.  Twice.

The father, George, gets out and assumes that the creature is dead.  The only thing to do is take Bigfoot home and see what their options are.  No easy task, considering how big Bigfoot is.  George Henderson is played by John Lithgow.  Lithgow is a tall guy at 6' 4".  Bigfoot is taller.  Bigfoot is played by Kevin Peter Hall, who stood 7' 2½".  This makes it hard to lift him onto the car, to say nothing of where they’ll put him when they get home.

When Bigfoot wakes up, he goes through the house and destroys a good portion of it.  He also tries to bury George’s hunting trophies in the back yard.  It takes a while for the Hendersons to realize that Bigfoot isn’t that dangerous.  They decide to let him stay, even calling him Harry.  They eventually realize that Harry has to go back; he has no place in a major city.  Dr. Wallace Wrightwood is willing to help once he realizes that Harry does exist.  Jacques Lafleur, however, is hot on Harry’s trail and will stop at nothing to get his prize.

The movie is generally safe for older children.  Harry goes from being frightened and defensive to sweet and friendly pretty early on, so any really scary scenes will be in the beginning of the film.  Much of the humor is slapstick, though.  Harry is every bit as clumsy as you’d expect, which is understandable.  He’s out of his element.  George teaches Harry to sit.  When Harry does sit, it’s often with destructive consequences, like destroying a table or putting a hole in the floor.

There’s also the moral dilemma.  George sees dollar signs, but the rest of the family sees him as a living creature.  George eventually comes around, realizing the he’s not even sure who to turn Harry over to.  Is it fair to make money off of a living creature, especially knowing that they’d be poked and prodded?  The alternative is to keep him trapped in a house that’s too small for him and hope they can find food for him.  It doesn’t help that neighbors would likely not understand.

Interestingly, they did make this into a TV sitcom.  I never saw it, but I do vaguely recall hearing about it.  I actually ran for 72 episodes over three seasons.  I’m assuming that the show would have used a plot similar to ALF, in that Harry would have been confined to the house.  I might check that out if it ever comes on Netflix.  One thought crossed my mind while watching the movie, though:  What would have happened if Syfy had gotten their hands on the script?


IMDb page