It doesn’t take Elton John to realize that Saturday Night is all right. Growing up a Child of the ’80s, weekends were absolutely the best and I made a point to record SNL with my high-tech VCR, because I could never stay up late enough to watch an entire episode, and then wake up early enough for church the next morning. But I made a point to catch every episode that was humanly possible, long through my college-age years Saturday Night Live has long been a favorite show of mine, even though I’m no longer actively watching it.
While the show continues to win a variety of awards to this day, it’s still those early seasons that intrigue me the most, when the Not Ready for Prime Time Players were still fine-tuning their art. It seems like writer-director Jason Reitman had the same idea. With his recent release, Saturday Night, the filmmaker examines all the doubts, all the chaos and what was really happening during a handful of hours leading up to the show’s series premiere on October 11, 1975.
Lorne Michaels, the show’s creator, is the primary focus of this feature film. Patiently played by Gabriel LaBelle — who has the man’s mannerisms absolutely nailed — the character must do the unthinkable in order to succeed: He must play the role of cat herder to his rambunctious comedians, his sometimes-rude staff and his rebellious crew. He cannot overreact whenever something goes wrong — and it does, constantly — because NBC network minions are always floating around, watching and waiting for the opportunity to cancel the show, long before it gets a chance to actually hit the airwaves.
I mean, whose bright idea was it to greenlight a counterculture show starring total unknowns in a live TV show?
Big things are happening here, they just take a lot of time to develop, as reactions are a little slow. Michaels can’t decide on which scenes to film, resulting in a script that isn’t locked down until the absolute last second. Technical difficulties arise left and right with sets and budgetary problems. The show’s writers are constantly stoned; the actors physically assault each other through rehearsals. The sad sound system dies and a fire on the set erupts during a walkthrough. The movie is chaotic, frantic and definitely nerve inducing, but it is also incredibly paced.
“We can’t expect people to recognize something they’ve never seen before…”
It seems impossible for so many events to have actually taken place within such a short amount of time, but apparently Reitman got the inside scoop from speaking to some of the people who actually worked on the show, so many years ago. At times, this feels like a behind-the-scenes documentary tell-all, but it really does tell a good story highlighting the madness surrounding that very first episode, 50 years ago.
The ensemble of actors is simply incredible. I didn’t know who many of them were beforehand, but I definitely recognized many of the characters they were portraying. The casting is perfect, with the exception of Billy Crystal (played by Nicholas Podany) — this was really the only character I couldn’t immediately identify. I was especially thrilled to see a couple of the wonderful actors from Licorice Pizza and The Fabelmans featured in this production.
It really does feel like this group of up-and-comers has finally arrived in the spotlight and I can’t be happier for them!
If you’ve ever watched SNL before, or at least know a little bit about pop culture, you’ll definitely recognize the on-screen talent as they prepare for their big breaks: There’s Chevy Chase (Cory Michael Smith), Gilda Radner (Ella Hunt), Dan Aykroyd (Dylan O’Brien), John Belushi (Matt Wood), Garrett Morris (Lamorne Morris), Andy Kaufman and Jim Henson (both played by Nicholas Braun). Rachel Sennott and Cooper Hoffman impressed me the most, but I really enjoyed the performances of Finn Wolfhard and J.K. Simmons, as well.
The narcissists seem to be playing tug of war with the anarchists, but all of those characters are somehow the heroes of this production. The countdown clock, as well as the NBC network execs who constantly threaten to pull the plug, along with the egos of everyone involved are the true antagonists of this story, and there are many.
I’m going to step out onto a limb and genuinely compliment the excessively dizzying camera turns, which is something I never do as one who suffers from motion sickness quickly, but here at least, the camera, alone, brings more frantic pressure to the film, as this dysfunctional family finally learns to get along with each other.
The entire storyline has a great retro vibe, thanks in part to costumes, set designs, hair and makeup, as well as the overall storyline. There are too many people to credit here, but I absolutely hope many of the different heads of production receive their accolades throughout the awards season, as every individual aspect of the film truly feels vintage, authentic and nostalgic.
Too bad more people didn’t catch this one in movie theaters, as its box office only pulled in a third of its reported budget. I missed seeing it earlier this year at the Nashville Film Festival, and I’ve been kicking myself for not seeing it sooner.
As far as biographical dramedys go, this definitely feels like a throwback, one which I truly enjoyed. There have been plenty of books published about the show’s early years, but I’m surprised not too many films have been released focusing on the topic. While the original byline of SNL included abstract humor, timely political jokes, parody commercials and sketches, I’ve got no idea how or why Michaels decided high-concept puppetry was needed, as well. In this storyline, at least, this isn’t exactly the kind of job that Jim Henson signed up for and it’s probably a good reason why he didn’t stick around on the show very long IRL.
As a superfan of classic SNL, Saturday Night does not disappoint. Hopefully, the film will eventually find an audience via streaming services and other repeat showings in the future. I would think Elton John, would agree, as he’s been a host and a performer on the show in different episodes.
“The show doesn’t go on because it’s ready, the show goes on because it’s 11:30…”