Movie Review
Saturday Night is a fun frenetic you-were-there look at debut of SNL
Saturday Night recreates the hours leading up to the debut episode of Saturday Night Live.
Saturday Night Live is a comedy institution that just started its historic 50th season, a show that is ingrained into American pop culture in a way that few things have ever been. Of course, it wasn’t always that way, especially at the beginning. The tumultuous time leading up to its 1975 debut is the focus of the new film, Saturday Night.
The frenetic film mostly follows Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle) as he tries to herd a bunch of disparate pieces into the semblance of a TV show. Not only must he deal with the varying personalities of the show’s stars - Chevy Chase (Cory Michael Smith), Gilda Radner (Ella Hunt), Dan Aykroyd (Dylan O’Brien), Laraine Newman (Emily Fairn), John Belushi (Matt Wood), Garrett Morris (Lamorne Morris, no relation), and Jane Curtin (Kim Matula) - but also a constant barrage of questions from writers, producers, studio executives, and more.
The camera is in almost constant motion as Michaels moves from one part of Studio 8H in New York City’s 30 Rockefeller Plaza to another, putting out fires (sometimes literally), approving changes (up to literally the last second), and trying to display confidence in a product that had never been tested before.
Directed by Jason Reitman and written by Reitman and Gil Kenan, the film is best viewed as what it is, a dramatization of events on that first fateful night. Although there have been various accounts of what the early days of SNL were like (most notably Live From New York by James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales), only those who were there in person know what it was truly like to launch the show.
The film definitely fudges and conflates certain things, but it’s the general feeling that it gives off that matters the most. The pace is such that it’s nearly impossible to catch everything put on screen or understand the importance of every character. But what is readily apparent is the passionate-if-slapdash way Michaels and his crew are trying to organize the show, as well as the seemingly never-ending well of humor possessed by everyone on its staff.
Still, it’s fair to wonder for whom exactly the film is being made. While many of the people in the film are iconic and well-known, just as many are not, and only SNL superfans will know everyone who makes their way on screen. The speed of the film’s storytelling is great for the atmosphere it creates, but it doesn’t stop to explain who anyone is, so viewers who don’t have a good grasp of mid-’70s pop culture may find themselves a little lost.
The film is so packed full of people that you can’t give everyone their just due. LaBelle, who was a great stand-in for a young Steven Spielberg in The Fabelmans, proves just as adept in his portrayal of Michaels, save for the distinctive voice. Among the multiple other notable performances are Smith, Morris, Rachel Sennot as Michaels’ then-wife Rosie Shuster, and Nicholas Braun as both Andy Kaufman and Jim Henson.
Saturday Night is a loving tribute to a show with which most Americans have at least a passing familiarity, even if it sometimes feels like it was made just for the show’s most ardent viewers. The level of detail spent recreating the look and feel of SNL’s early days makes it a fun and compelling film, no matter if what it shows is completely true or not.
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Saturday Night opens in theaters on October 11.
