‘Saturday Night’ (2024)
Sony Pictures.
Directed by: Jason Reitman
Written by: Gil Kenan & Jason Reitman
Starring: Gabriel LaBelle, Rachel Sennott, Cory Michael Smith, Ella Hunt, Dylan O’Brien, Emily Fairtn, Matt Wood, Lamorne Morris, Kim Matula, J.K. Simmons & Willem Dafoe.
As it approaches it’s 50th Anniversary, Saturday Night Live is an American institution. Yes, it’s fluctuated in quality over the years as members of the cast have left and new, fresh-faced comedians take their place, but it’s always been there and has always delivered a unique style of programing for generations of television watchers. But what if it wouldn’t have ever aired? Things could have ended up much differently for the “Not Quite Ready For Prime-Time Players” as evidenced by a number of things that went wrong leading up to their very first broadcast on October 11th, 1975. The new film ‘Saturday Night’ from Jason Reitman explores just what happened in the 90 minutes leading up to 11:30pm when the cameras started rolling in Studio 8H at 30 Rcokefeller Plaza. And what a 90 minutes it was!
The film, for the most part, follows Lorne Michaels around in the 90 minutes preceding their inaugural broadcast. He is trying to make sure lighting and sound is up and running properly, wrangling the cast, going over last minute details with the writers and shaking hands with all of the affiliate executives who have some to New York to witness this little experiment first-hand. All in all, quite a chaotic time. Besides the camera work and tight quarters adding to the tension of the film, the cast that was chosen to play these now-iconic (thought at the time, relatively unknown) actors were all incredible. Cory Michael Smith, who I knew as The Riddler in ‘Gotham’ did a remarkable job portraying Chevy Chase. Ditto with Larmorne Morris who was pitch perfect at Garrett Morris. Eagle-eyed fans will appreciate the attention to detail that went into the film be it from the eyeglasses that “Paul Schaffer” wore to the replication of the original set from that first episode. A lot of care and effort obviously went into making this film hit the right marks and set the proper tone. Director Jason Reitman does a great job of using the tight spaces (backstage, hallways, elevators, etc) along with stressful situations to keep the tension high and the pacing tight. Only a few times are small breaks taken from this when Lorne Michaels visits a bar and then, finally, the iconic ice rink at Rockefeller Plaza in search of John Belushi who has vanished after a nearly coming to blows with Chevy Chase in the dressing room. A great job is also done of catching just enough of each of the supporting characters to get you to invest in them, including the people you may not be as familiar with such as Dafoe’s David Tebet (NBC Network Executive) or Robert Wuhl’s Dave WIlson (SNL Director). We see glimpses of the original cast and a peek behind the curtain at how they behaved and interacted before this little show catapulted them to stardom.
Obviously, some creative liberties were taken in the telling of this film to help heighten the dramatic effect, but 80% of what you see in the film ends up being, by all accounts, true or mostly true. The entire cast does a superb job of portraying their real-life characters. The direction is clear, the writing is sharp, the pacing is nimble and the cinematography is very good. All-in-all, I can only find little quibbles about the film but nothing that tarnishes its fun nor dampens its spirit. This isn’t a blockbuster film, nor is there anything about it that demands it be seen in the theater, but after seeing ‘Saturday Night’ and having it resonate with me on such a positive level, I strongly encourage all of you to go out and see it when it opens this coming weekend (Friday, October 11th)! This is a movie that deserves to do well at the box office to send a message to Hollywood that strong, story-driven, character centric films are what we as an audience are hungry for in 2024 and beyond. I give this movie a 9 out of 10 and I hope that you will enjoy it as much as I did.
