Directed By Jason Reitman

Starring – Gabriel LaBelle, Rachel Sennott, Cory Michael Smith

The Plot – At 11:30pm on October 11, 1975, a ferocious troupe of young comedians and writers changed television and culture forever. ‘Saturday Night’ is based on the true story of what happened behind the scenes in the 90 minutes leading up to the first broadcast of Saturday Night Live. Full of humor, chaos, and the magic of a revolution that almost wasn’t, we count down the minutes in real time until we hear those famous words.

Rated R for adult language throughout, sexual references, some drug use and brief graphic nudity.

SATURDAY NIGHT – Official Trailer (HD) (youtube.com)

POSITIVES

Being a hardcore longtime fan of Saturday Night Live, who has seen every single episode ever produced, I was curious to see how the rebellious nature of the show’s inception would translate to the screen, and though movies are known to scrub as much of the authenticity from the origin of the story as possible, there’s a heart and imaginative radiance to Reitman’s film that makes this the perfect foretelling of those events, proving why it was in fact the lightning in a bottle that has since been many times imitated, but never duplicated. For starters, this is Reitman’s best directing in years, as he not only conjures the tense anxieties of atmosphere with pulling together so many creative ideas under one roof for the show’s success, with claustrophobic inescapability to those in focus, but also articulates the overwhelming odds that SNL and specifically Lorne Michaels had in airing the show, which now feel so trivial when you come to appreciate that the show is currently in its 50th year. Throughout the continuous unraveling of its storytelling, weaving in and out of many pocketed dynamics throughout the ensemble’s personal fears and disheartening interactions before showtime, Reitman stirs ingredients of uncertainty that maximize the palpable tension to the film’s engagement, all without truly sacrificing the integrity of its comedic muscle, which surprisingly and effectively registers in ways that very few films about improvisational comedy ever truly master on-screen. The comedy is the best kind of adult material that the show within the film isn’t always privy towards, and though it’s sure to alienate some audiences based on the graphic nature of its gags, it’s a truthful enveloping of the live fast lifestyle that its colorful cast persevered through, presenting the closest insight towards those legendary stories behind the scenes that are cleverly inserted to this script whose writer has clearly done his homework. In my opnion, it works best when SNL writer Michael O’ Donaghue is present, as he unloads automatic vitriolic ammunition so assertive and unapologetic that it annihilates anyone in his opposition, with a coldly calculating confidence that I simply couldn’t get enough of. If this isn’t enough, the story is told in real time, in the countdown to showtime running alongside the movie’s run time, crafting an unwavering urgency to the 101 minutes of screen time that flourishes emphatically in the materializing of so many unforeseen obstacles, all without diminishing my investment to the narrative, which could’ve easily floundered in such a repetitious structure, but instead grew tighter with so many combustible elements brewing under one studio, feeling like as many as six bullet trains running to the same destination. ‘Saturday Night’ is also blessed with tremendous production values, in everything from the costume and wigs, which help to convey picture perfect likeness to those performances that are slightly inconsistent, as well as the movie’s presentation, which feels like a character of its own deviating between so many aforementioned dynamics. On the former, the remarkable job of recreating on-set costumes and actor attributes is attained on the smallest or grandest measurement, with seamless detailing that eerily elicit a virtual mirroring to iconic looks, proving valuable in making this feel anything other than a TV movie of the week, and the latter using abrupt cuts in Lorne’s psyche to breed memories, good and bad, in his clashing with network executives, all to give the presentation an occasionally immersive quality that feels further appreciative of Lorne and the astonishing grace that he now supplants to making a weekly show look naturally effortless. The ensemble also is about 90% effective in bringing to life these colorful personalities, but when you consider that they’re essentially playing a real life person portraying a fictional TV character, it becomes all the more impressive, with a select few of them radiating such an infectious energy and nuance that feels like the embody the actor, while others are simply just doing impressions. I’ve already spoken on O’ Donaghue, and how I feel he truly steals the show, so I won’t go there, and instead focus upon and commend Labelle, Smith, and Dylan O’ Brien, whom the film frequently gravitates around. As Dan Akroyd, O’Brien could easily come across as cartoonish, but instead the documented inflections of Akroyd’s voice are reserved for moments they can distinguish themselves best, making this feel like a youthful depiction of Dan, long before every distributed dialogue was long-winded and robotic. As for LaBelle and Smith, they’re kind of the expected to be the torchbearers for the movie, as Lorne and Chevy Chase, respectively, but Smith commands Chevy with the same kind of charming narcissism that endeared him to certain audiences while alienating him from others, with Chase’s caustically dry deliveries often clashing with his co-stars, while LaBelle harvests the anxieties and neurosis of a man simultaneously with so much responsibility and so much to lose, unlocking a refreshingly vulnerable side to Lorne that has never been documented. Rachel Sennott also deserves a lot of praise as Rosie Shuster, serving as the olive branch of peace to so many clashing big personalities, whether by sensuality or intelligence that often gives her a leg up on those she comes into communication with.

NEGATIVES

The problems are few and far between enough in ‘Saturday Night’ to keep the engagement mostly in the beneficial circumstances, but there were some momentary conflicting intentions in creativity and performances that cut into my investment, serving as distracting aspects to a film that already faces a divisive uphill obstacle of feeling repetitive in structure to its audience. The bigger problems definitely resonate with the performances from Ella Hunt and Matt Wood, as Gilda Radner and John Belushi, respectively, who are not only given very little opportunities substantially to stand out among their peers, but also are enacted by these actors in ways that don’t even come close to the bountiful personalities of two such pioneers of comedy. Hunt breaks my heart most of all because I’ve been an avid fan of her work since 2017’s ‘Anna and the Apocalypse’, but here she’s completely miscast as Gilda, and it comes across in an emotional performance that never elevates itself beyond monotonous, only surpassed unflatteringly by Wood’s work as Belushi, which is constantly moody and unflattering for a man who provided SNL some of its best moments during the initial generation. For my two most favorite performers of this generation, it’s more than a little concerning and disappointing how they overlooked two key components to its success, with the overwhelming nature of filling shoes so immense that it doesn’t even attempt to. As for creative components countering momentum, the film’s score from the great Jon Batiste (Who also plays Billy Preston in the film) jazzily soups up downtime moments of building anxiety between a nervous cast, but intrudes too often during candid moments of interaction between two characters, which not only cuts into the palpable emotion of the scene’s intention, but also undercuts the magnitude of the performances by adding a safety net that can re-affirm what their work is supposed to make us feel naturally. It feels heavily touched up and influenced by post-production, and in turn squanders the sanctity of a moment’s authenticity, with tones in compositions during key conflicts that don’t feel tonally in-sync with what’s being conveyed.

OVERALL
‘Saturday Night’ offers a frenetically unfiltered and insightful look into the cultural phenomenon that re-evaluated late night television and cultivated the careers of The Not Yet Ready for Primetime Players, who walked so other comedians could run. Despite uneven performances that don’t always attain a collective effort, the film is energized by the tension and passion in Jason Reitman’s manic direction, constructing an affectionately rambunctious reminiscing of the first day in fifty years of television that has since elicited iconic characters and memorable moments that are a stitch in the fabric of our satirical culture.

My Grade: 8/10 or B+