Saturday Night
Starring: Gabriel Labelle, Cooper Hoffman, Rachel Sennott, Dylan O'Brien
Directed By: Jason Reitman
Saturday Night looks to tell a dramatized version of the frenetic events leading up to the first live taping of Saturday Night Live in 1975. The film follows Lorne Michaels (Gabriel Labelle) as he frantically prepares sketches, handles cast drama, and puts out fires (literally and figuratively) before the show goes on air.
While we may be used to Saturday Night Live and its somewhat corny sketches now, the series was hugely groundbreaking at the time. This film tries to show its audience what a massively creative undertaking it was in the 70s. Director Jason Reitman moves the film at a breakneck speed. At times the film is absolutely dizzying, as it moves from one crisis to the next without a break in action for a second. The score by Jon Baptiste matches the mood perfectly.
Gabriel Labelle is such an exceptional actor. Between Saturday Night and The Fabelmans, it’s clear he can lead a film without issue. As Lorne Michaels, he is the film's driving force, attempting to keep Saturday Night going no matter how much chaos threatens to derail the show. He is the comedian’s champion but it’s rarely easy to wrangle so much talent under one roof.
Cooper Hoffman is great as Dick Ebersol. Hoffman, son of Phillip Seymour Hoffman was a standout in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza and shines yet again. Ebersol just wants Lorne Michaels to be realistic in his visions for SNL and maybe work the room in a few meetings and sell a few TV adverts. The two clash in their business style, but ultimately want what is best for the show.
Saturday Night is an ensemble with the cast working together to bring their best impressions of the early SNL cast members. Dylan O’Brien, Matt Wood, and Cory Michael Smith are standouts as Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, and Chevy Chase. The actors embody the roles in particularly impressive impersonations that feel very realistic.
While the acting is top-notch, one of my biggest issues with the film is how ridiculously dramatized it is. Trust me, I don’t get too hung up on movies taking liberties for dramatic effect but this takes it to a new level. The whole point of this movie is to make it seem like the night leading up to the first live show was a disaster of epic proportions. But the majority of the events depicted on screen didn’t even happen that night. It gets to a point while watching that you can’t even suspend your disbelief anymore. While watching Saturday Night, you’d think that no one on this crew should be working on TV. Obviously, in real life, the cast was better prepared before showtime. No one was out in New York City ice skating or hiring comedy writers in bars less than an hour before showtime. Lorne Michaels knew who the host of Weekend Update would be weeks in advance. There was chaos that night, but it was nothing like this.
Also, because the story is so chaotic, the script doesn’t feel focused. It feels like multiple sketches of “Lorne Michaels’ crazy night!” pieced together to form a movie. I guess that’s appropriate considering it’s about SNL. However, I do wish the script was more cohesive. (Especially when dealing with people like Gilda Radner or Andy Kauffman, who are both used too sparingly.)
Despite a chaotic script, Saturday Night is an engaging movie with great performances all around.
My Rating: 7/10