Not even Lorne Michaels himself could describe what the show was about. The turmoil around the founder of Saturday Night Live, America’s longest running sketch variety show and one of the most famous institutions in the history of television, is the focus in Jason Reitman’s latest film Saturday Night (as the show used to be called).
His film is entirely a re-imagining of the feverish 90 minutes countdown before the show debuted on October 11th, 1975. Then-unknown young comedians were about to step into the spotlight, making them stars and transforming the culture. This ticking-bomb-of-film is an appealing and fast moving love letter to Lorne Michaels and how the iconic show, that has entertained with jokes and parody and launched so many stars throughout the years, saw the light.
Next year SNL will celebrate 50 years. By 1974, Tonight Show host Johnny Carson had grown tired of doing the Best of Carson program on Saturdays. NBC needed a replacement and stuck with a young producer from Canada, Lorne Michaels, who was already a successful comedy writer and had made a name for himself as a screenwriter on several popular television shows.
The goal of the new show was to reach out to the young generation and cover current topics and constantly stay on the edge of what’s allowed, making the performers the comic rebels of the time. Michaels idea was radical and untested. The mood he was going for was anarchic and chaotic, he wanted things naked, political, conscious and alive. This mood is also what Reitman aims for in his film.
We are thrown into a world full of chatty and constantly moving people, told almost in real time. The camera, held by cinematographer Eric Steelberg (who also shot Reitman’s Juno, 2007 and Up in the Air, 2009) follows Lorne Michaels and the rest of the gang like a snake backstage in the NBC studio without slowing down. It’s a madhouse.
Played by Gabriel LaBelle (The Fabelmans, 2022), Michael is portrayed as an optimistic and nervous producer trying to explain and figure out what the show is about. He also tries to find a way to cut the running time from 3 ½ to 1 ½ hour and convince the executives Dick Ebersol (Cooper Hoffman) and David Tebet (Willem Dafoe), who are giving him a hard time. The only person who balances things out for Michael this night is his wife Rosie Shuster (Rachel Sennott), whom he’s separated from.
One of his main comedians, John Belushi (Matt Wood), is resistant to even participating and escapes to the skating rink by Rockefeller Center. He doesn’t want to wear the bizarre bee costume nor sign the contract. The troubled Belushi was the most popular member of this first Saturday Night Live ensemble, along with Chevy Chase (Core Michael Smith).
They also get more screen time. Then of course you have Dan Akroyd (Dylan O’Brian), the first hired member Gilda Radner (Ella Hunt) and the rest of the original members Jane Curtin (Kim Matula), Garrett Morris (Lamorne Morris) and Laraine Newman (Emily Fairn). All the actors are strikingly good but unfortunately, we don’t get to know any of them more than their mannerism. There is no time. The camera frantically moves in and out and is gasping for air as it captures everything from a suspicious script reviewer and the angry executives to a fallen lighting rig, fires, fights and bricks still being laid minutes before the start. Chaos is Saturday Night’s neighbor.
Reitman is obviously a lifelong SNL fan, and he started to write the script already after his breakthrough, the Oscar winning Juno. He co-wrote it with his Ghostbusters collaborator Gil Kenan and what they are trying to capture, in their recreation of the 90 minutes leading up to the first episode, is more the turbulent spirit than accurate facts. Apparently, everyone they spoke to had different memories of that night. The reimagination of those memories, and Reitman’s playfulness, makes this a very watchable film, although it could have let the audience breathe a few moments. You get the temperament of New York in the 70’s, eye-catching costume design and the incredible energy when a slice of TV history made the air.
Grade : B
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Here’s the trailer of the film.