‘Saturday Night’ a Frantic and Fun Trip Down Memory Lane
Jason Reitman’s fast-paced, dialogue-dense Saturday Night takes us back to a time when the half-century-old SNL was a revolutionary symbol of counterculture.
Almost half a century after its debut, it’s hard to remember that Saturday Night Live was once considered a landmark of revolutionary counterculture. Today, the show feels painfully mainstream, pandering to political candidates and usually opting for safer jokes, aside from the occasional off-the-wall digital short.
The television landscape was very different in 1975. Controlled by the old guard of the Big Three networks and chock full of cheesy variety shows and sponsored segments, there wasn’t really a place to showcase underground talent and fresh humor.
Saturday Night Live filled that gap, presenting a more youthful and raw style of comedy and showcasing popular musicians. Many of comedy’s biggest heavy hitters got their big break on the sketch show before becoming household names and moving on to the greener pastures of feature films.
Jason Reitman’s new film Saturday Night imagines the behind-the-scenes chaos of the premiere episode, focusing on Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle) and co. arguing with executives, breaking up cast member brawls, and even trying to secure a llama in the 90 minutes leading up to the show going live.
Told at a fast pace with Sorkin-like dialogue, the film features a cast of today’s breaking stars (Rachel Sennott, Dylan O’Brien, Lamorne Morros, Nicholas Braun, Cooper Hoffman, Kaia Gerber, and Finn Wolfhard, to name a few) playing the soon to be household names from the first season of SNL. Cory Michael Smith as Chevy Chase is a major standout as well as Braun, who plays both Andy Kaufman and Jim Henson. We also see impressive turns in smaller roles from Nicholas Podany as Billy Crystal, Matthew Rhys as George Carlin, and a great appearance from J. K. Simmons as Milton Berle that works best if you’re familiar with a notorious rumor about the late comedian. And, of course, the unofficial busiest man in Hollywood, Willem Dafoe, is here as well.
Much like the real SNL, with a cast this large, it’s hard for anyone to fully flesh out their characters, so don’t expect deep insights about the performers beyond a few lingering moments with Belushi. In addition, there’s not much commentary on issues where the show has drawn some legitimate criticism. Laraine Newman (Emily Fairn), Jane Curtin (Kim Matula), and Gilda Radner (Ella Hunt) are used to briefly address roles for women in comedy and there’s a quick scene of Morris bringing up screen time for cast members of color, but the film takes place before those were more concerning issues for the show.
In short, this isn’t really about that. This is about Michaels as the captain of a ship seemingly designed to sink, but somehow still sailing after 50 years. It’s about creating a space for the wildness and weirdness that is late night in New York City and bringing that into American homes every weekend. It’s about a changing of the guard for comedy and popular culture.
If you’re of a certain age or you’re familiar with comedy pre and post-SNL, you’ll get a kick out of seeing these young stars embody the emerging legends of that era, but for those not familiar with the show or those too young to care about comedy in the 1970s, Saturday Night might be a tougher sell.
