Having been on the air for 50 years, the notion of making a biopic surrounding Saturday Night Live presents numerous possibilities. Would it track the life of the show’s creator and producer, Lorne Michaels? What about delivering various origin stories for any of the original “Not-Ready-For-Prime Time Players?” Perhaps most appropriately, Saturday Night focuses on the moments leading up to the first-ever airing of SNL. Co-writer/director Jason Reitman and co-writer Gil Kenan have taken a step away from the world of Ghostbusters to deliver a biopic that works as both a comedy and a ticking-clock thriller. The results are pretty entertaining. What the film may lack in doing more to justify some attempts at arguing for the importance of comedy at that time, it makes up for by way of its large ensemble cast and skilled editing choices to deliver on a chaotic evening that flows pretty seamlessly nonetheless.
As noted, the film takes place during the 90 minutes before the October 11, 1975 debut of Saturday Night Live. Lorne Michaels (The Fabelman’s Gabriel LaBelle) is doing all he can to maintain his cool despite all indications of a disaster waiting to happen. Various forms of concern and intimidation are coming from the higher-ups, including network executive David Tebet (Willem Dafoe) and young NBC programmer Dick Ebersol (Cooper Hoffman). Meanwhile, the young writers and cast members are all anxious to show off their work. Various guests, comedians, and others are awaiting word on how everything will play out on the show, and there’s also a llama roaming the studio.
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At its best, the spirit of a 70s counter-culture-themed comedy is rooted well into what’s happening on camera. We know the show will succeed, but the film can still have us wrapped up in Lorne’s efforts to keep all the plates spinning at once and prove to those doubting him that this is the next evolution in television programming (nevermind the irony that decades later, Lorne has yet to relinquish command of the show in favor of someone more in tune with “the now”). When the film is truly firing on all cylinders, we watch the camera glide around Studio 8H, mostly following Lorne, but weaving in and out of all the other subplots taking place throughout this film, whether it’s seeing the grudges held between some of the players, or the flirting going on, let alone more important things, such as what the censors are doing the to the scripts.
Given the desire to make a rapid-fire feature that rarely has time to hold itself in one place for too long, one does wish the dialogue had more snappiness to it. That’s not to say that only Aaron Sorkin could handle something like this (and the self-righteousness of the very similar, quickly canceled NBC comedy-drama Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip is evidence that it wouldn’t be the best idea). Still, compared to a film like Steve Jobs, which also focused on constrained timelines and lots of moving parts, I wished there was more to be said about what these people were discussing. While often humorous, having Milton Berle (an ideally cast J.K. Simmons) speak down to Chevy Chase (Cory Michael Smith) about how he has no future in comedy in blunt terms, for example, only really works when you don’t have several other scenes just like it.
At the same time, when it comes to seeing comedic hijinks play out like this, there’s a lot of fun to be had in seeing a hip young cast playing…well, a hip young cast. Rachel Sennott shines as writer (and Lorne’s former wife) Rosie Shuster, as she does just enough work to make her stand out as more than just someone Lorne is bouncing dialogue off. Indeed, the few female cast members all get their moments to shine. However, the emphasis on having segments that seem to stop the film so it can spotlight Gilda Radner (Ella Hunt), Laraine Newman (Emily Fairn), and Jane Curtin (Kim Matula) together for the sake of saying, “Yes, the women had thoughts too,” does feel noticeable.
Other casting highlights include Lamorne Morris as Garrett Morris, who gets the chance to feature his own introspection as a Juilliard-trained actor and playwright wondering why he’s part of the cast of a zany comedy show. Dylan O’Brien certainly has the cadence down for Dan Aykroyd, even if it feels more like impression than lived-in work. Smith, meanwhile, seems to get the vanity of Chevy Chase that goes along with his inherent funniness. To round out the original SNL cast, Matt Wood makes for a decent John Belushi, but it’s a testament to what a singular force Belushi was that it feels like a spark missing that could have really made this role shine.
Much of the movie does focus on Lorne, however, and while LaBelle is quite good at letting himself look worried yet holding back from showing anyone just how stressed he is, I wish the script had less in the abstract for him to say about comedy. We hear a lot from Lorne about how this show will take a stand when it comes to what is good for the newer generation and what they want to see on late-night television. However, this movie doesn’t really get into any of that.
There are many scenes focused on writers talking about notes and changes being made to their pages, and how to arrange the show, but there’s seldom any discussion about the actual content or why this sort of comedy is important (and the very first sketch of SNL, the only one we see in this film, isn’t exactly the knee-slapper I think the film wants it to be, beyond the nostalgia factor). Whether the movie just assumes we know it will work out or doesn’t know how to parse things out more substantially, Saturday Night does seem to heavily rely on the notion that the comedy is important just because they say so.
Of course, with the film functioning mainly as a comedy that’s more out to prove how thrilling it is to be looking at a countdown to showtime, I can set aside how thematically interesting the movie is for the sake of looking at the events that take place. I won’t say I’m an expert on all the behind-the-scenes stories about Saturday Night Live in the early days. Still, many are certainly aware of various bits of trivia, urban legends, and more. Being a dramatization of events, I’d naturally expect to see much of that throughout this film, no matter how accurate. The only time I take issue with this is when the film decides to be a bit too cute about how it managed to find a comedy writer randomly in a bar or watching other writers develop ideas for iconic sketches that would occur later in the show’s run, but happen to show off their plans on this very night.
It’s worth noting all of this because Saturday Night so effectively pulls off the high-wire act of floating through a studio that is full of so many characters that it makes me wish it got even more into the nitty-gritty of what was actually taking place, as opposed to leaning on some notable bits that occurred later on or not at all. Relying less on legends and more on ideas and critical conversations that would be just as exciting to see unfold in a film like this may have put the film even more over the top. Seeing further struggles for George Carlin (Matthew Rhys), who had his own perspective on what was taking place, could have been helpful. Even seeing how others were reacting to Andy Kaufman and Jim Henson (both played by Nicholas Braun) could have been worthwhile, as opposed to them serving as a punchline in different ways.
Granted, it hardly matters when a film proves to be as entertaining as this one. Sure, I have some gripes that extend to a screenplay that’s not as ambitious in the dialogue as it is when it comes to balancing so many disparate elements. However, there’s a crackling energy on display thanks to Reitman’s direction, which brought me back to how exciting it was when he was delivering films like Up in the Air and Young Adult. There’s not nearly as much acidity laced in what’s ostensibly a light-hearted comedy-drama. However, as a way of delivering a unique look at the experience of building a live 90-minute comedy show, I did take away plenty from this production, even if I didn’t get to take home my own Super Bass-O-Matic.
Saturday Night is now playing in select theaters and opens wide on October 11, 2024.
