Saturday Night Review
Saturday Night (2024) Film Review, a movie directed by Jason Reitman, written by Gil Kenan and Jason Reitman and starring Gabriel LaBelle, Rachel Sennott, Cory Michael Smith, Willem Dafoe, Ella Hunt, Dylan O’Brien, J.K. Simmons, Emily Fairn, Matt Wood, Lamorne Morris, Kim Matula, Finn Wolfhard, Nicholas Braun, Ellen Boscov, Stephen Badalamenti, Cooper Hoffman, Peter E Dawson, Andrew Barth Feldman and John Dinello.
Jason Reitman brings to life the backstory of how the first episode of “Saturday Night Live” came to air on television in the entertaining Saturday Night. On October 11, 1975, a group of misfits gathered to create a show that would ultimately stand the test of time. With wildly outrageous news reports, musical interludes and a series of way-out-there humorous skits, SNL managed to tap into a large audience throughout the years. Reitman’s well-cast film vividly brings to life the details of how the show came to be. While the movie occasionally lags due to inconsistent pacing, it’s a great deal of fun watching actors re-create some of the personalities of the most famous comedians of all-time.
This film stars Gabriel LaBelle as Lorne Michaels who was the principal driving force of the show. SNL was a daring vision at the time and it almost seemed destined to fail. Chevy Chase (Cory Michael Smith) was talented and funny but a loose cannon in a few respects while John Belushi (Matt Wood) had some personal issues as well. It was hard to pronounce Dan Aykroyd (Dylan O’Brien)’s last name. Let’s not mention cue cards were dropped in rehearsals and lights would crash down right on-set. The fact that the show even happened that fateful night the movie is set on was something of a minor miracle.
Rachel Sennott shines as Rosie Shuster who wrote for SNL and was Lorne Michaels’ wife. Sennott gets to chew scenery here as the one who seems to keep it all together as things get chaotic on the set of the show and people get nervous and frustrated. Sennott and LaBelle have some good scenes together as they interact and try to keep Michaels’ vision from falling apart before their very eyes.
Nicholas Braun beautifully plays Andy Kaufman, either the funniest guy on-set or the one who has to try the least hard to be humorous. Kaufman’s characterization by Braun here is spot-on though a bit different than Jim Carrey’s award winning interpretation of him in Man on the Moon. When Kaufman starts moving to the song lyrics, “Here I come to save the day,” it’s a show-stopper for sure. Braun also ably plays Muppet man Jim Henson who didn’t get the respect he deserved at the particular time of the first SNL show.
The supporting cast is well-assembled. Willem Dafoe plays NBC big shot Dave Tebot in the movie. Tebot was almost going to air another re-run of “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson” because he had so little confidence in the cast and crew of SNL. J.K. Simmons pops up as Milton Berle whose unusual unveiling in his primary scene in the picture will certainly raise some eyebrows.
There is so much going on in Saturday Night that some of the happenings seem to be exaggerated yet the movie remains a curiosity piece that will draw viewers in. A llama was on-set and delivered to the show a mere couple of hours or so before the show was to start. There are a lot of fun facts the movie brings into view but the film is overloaded with characters. Gilda Radner (Ella Hunt) and Laraine Newman (Emily Fairn) feel like they don’t get the screen time they deserve but, then again, most of the men aren’t on-screen enough either. This movie is a broad overview of everything that happened and with the exception of LaBelle and Sennott’s roles, the characters aren’t developed equally.
That being said, the movie almost has a documentary-style feel to it which is good for what Reitman was trying to do. Unfortunately, some of the performances end up getting lost in the shuffle but Reitman seems to have gotten the feel of what happened on the big night the movie portrays. The direction is sometimes tarnished by pacing issues and the movie can feel uneven at times but the content of the film is still smart and funny enough to maintain the viewer’s curiosity throughout.
Saturday Night has a lot of intriguing scenes. Most of them involve the cast of characters like Chevy Chase and the first Black member of SNL, Garret Morris (Lamorne Morris), who takes to inspiring the set in one hysterical scene within the picture. Cory Michael Smith does a great job as Chase, showing the comedian’s overly-confident but successful ability to be funny whenever he needs to be. It is still LaBelle who holds the movie together and his performance is at the very heart of the film.
Despite any flaws, Saturday Night is an ambitious film set, for the most part, in real time. By the time, you hear the words, “Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night” at the end, you’ll be grateful that Tebot didn’t pull the plug on a show that has brought into view some of the greatest comic talents who have ever lived. The fact that this show almost didn’t happen is the biggest surprise of the film. Reitman has crafted an enjoyable look at how the creative process comes together even when it’s not always all there before the cameras roll.
Rating: 7/10
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