As a huge SNL fan, my excitement for SATURDAY NIGHT was at a high. We here at Flix66 even put our names in for tickets to one of the 50th season episodes. Fingers crossed! I preface this to say, there is a certain bias and nostalgia to the positivity surrounding my review. SATURDAY NIGHT follows the chaotic 90 minutes before the very first episode of Saturday Night Live airing in October of 1975.
With the occasional ticking clock sound and black screen time stamp, the tension is palpable. A show that has never been done before fighting a studio execs from the network who are banking on failure in hopes to play reruns of the highly rated Tonight Show with Johnny Carson ramps up the tension even more. Did I mention that everything seems to be going wrong? The show is currently too long and is desperate need of some sketch cutting, actors are goofing around or disgruntled, writers are not playing nicely with skeptical host George Carlin or Jim Henson and his muppets, the sound, sets, and lights are crashing down, and the crew doesn’t believe in the show. It’s all terribly exciting with the aid of director Jason Reitman’s constant camera movement rotating throughout the famous New York City studio 8H providing a real sense of the space and surrounding chaos.
All the actors portraying these real life people were super impressive. Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle), Rosie Shuster (Rachel Sennott), Chevy Chase (Corey Michael Smith), Dan Aykroyd (Dylan O’Brien), Gilda Radner (Ella Hunt), Garrett Morris (Lamorne Morris), Laraine Newman (Emily Fairn), Jane Curtin (Kim Matula), and John Belushi (Matt Wood), Andy Kaufman and Jim Henson (both played by Nicholas Braun) are all familiar and excellent. Even J.K. Simmons as Milton Berle and Willem Dafoe as Dave Tebett get It’s not so much that they looked exactly like them, but there was an essence that was immediately recognizable and believable in this ragtag group of R-rated funny twenty-something-year-olds, who were talented but foolishly naive to drug use, responsibility, and the importance of what was being created.
It’s probably tough to think of one of the wealthiest and important comedic influences such as Lorne Michaels as an underdog. But I believe even the most casual fans of the show are going to have a blast with SATURDAY NIGHT. While the sketches and people involved are true to the first episode, I’m sure there are some liberties taken that make up a conglomerate of things that happened throughout the first season; it just happened to be shoved into the 130 minute runtime for great filmmaking. Along with the familiar faces and exciting show the material covers, written for screen by Gil Kenan and Jason Reitman, the choreographed long shots with so many actors and so much ensuing action is incredibly impressive. Fans of the show will recognize many of the sketches that either were rehearsed or discussed for a later date.
Obviously, Saturday Night Live is still going strong, so we know that it was ultimately a success. SATURDAY NIGHT is built around this tension of this famous long-running show on the verge of being canceled before it even airs. And doggone it, my heart was still pounding as I laughed with giddy nerves knowing full well they were going to make it to those famous opening words…
