Directed by Jason Reitman
An unofficial kick-off to the highly anticipated fiftieth season of Saturday Night Live, Saturday Night tells the (hugely embellished) story of the 90 minutes leading up to the first ever show in 1975.
During press rounds for Saturday Night, director Jason Reitman said his goal for the movie was “to make you feel what it’s really like when you’re on the ground in 8H moments before SNL, how it feels like there’s no possible way the show is going to make it to air because everything’s happening so last second. They’re still painting the sets, hemming the clothes and the wigs — all of that is happening right up until the last second.”
And in many ways, he achieved that vision — the movie does take you on a journey. 21-year-old Gabriel LaBelle tackles the role of Lorne Michaels (a decade younger than Michaels really was in 1975), with a generally well-performing slate of relative unknowns paying homage to seven of the biggest names in comedy: The original SNL cast.
The cHARACTERS & THEIR STORIES
- Cory Michael Smith as Chevy Chase. Dynamite. The physical resemblance, the mannerisms, the swagger — this is the standout performance.
- Lamorne Morris as Garrett Morris. Lamorne Morris is just plain good. And while the script is pretty heavy handed in the way it told Garrett’s story, Lamorne’s delivery is fantastic.
- Dylan O’Brien as Dan Aykroyd. Another guy who managed to crack the code (and the mustache was spot-on). He has the right style and vibe — even if Aykroyd himself was unsure about the casting choice.
- Tommy Dewey puts on one of the most true-to-life performances of the film as Michael O’Donoghue.
- A blatant rewrite of Dave Tebet’s history doesn’t change the fact that Willem Dafoe is a great antagonist in this movie, sharing the “2024 bad guy” spotlight with his other villain role in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.
- Cooper Hoffman (Philip Seymour Hoffman’s son, FYI) is excellent as Dick Ebersol.
- Matthew Rhys gives us a perfectly fine, if not a bit overplayed, George Carlin.
Kim Matula as Jane Curtin, Nicholas Braun as both Jim Henson and (more convincingly) Andy Kaufman, Emily Fairn as Laraine Newman, J.K. Simmons as an overly-dramatized-but-somehow-it-still-works-great Milton Berle, and Rachel Sennott as Rosie Shuster all do fine.
Now for the tough parts. It’s basically impossible to buy Matt Wood as John Belushi. They do resemble each other physically, yes, but unfortunately, the similarities end there. Wood lacks the charismatic, “makes you fall in love with his comedy” charm that characterizes Belushi’s legacy. Live From New York (James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales) tells the story of Belushi’s always-on persona. Belushi (2020) reveals the softer, affectionate nature reserved for family. Season after season of SNL showcased his “bull charging into the ring” comedic style. Saturday Night offers none of this. Wood gives us a temperamental yet quiet, generally unbelievable Belushi…. up until the final moments. In that last scene, in the reenactment of The Wolverines, Wood is as close to a Belushi prototype as it gets! If only that were true throughout the film.
And lastly, Ella Hunt as Gilda Radner — perhaps one of the most beloved SNL cast members (maybe even general celebrities) of all time. A difficult-to-buy casting choice from the beginning, Hunt fails to show Radner’s joy and humor. But it isn’t all her fault — she never gets an opportunity to show it off. Only Reitman can answer for why Radner’s personality was left out of the script, but the fact remains that we wouldn’t have gotten a lot from the portrayal even if it had been cast well (just reference that overly reflective ice rink scene if you aren’t convinced).
Final thoughts
This movie wasn’t made for the SNL super-fans — it’s too inaccurate for that. And yet it wasn’t made for someone who has never seen an episode with the original cast — too many things went unspoken for a total newcomer to track. So who was it made for? The casual SNL fan from the 70s who vaguely remembers the early days?
It’s not Reitman’s best movie (Juno? Up In the Air?), it’s not even the best SNL-related movie, and the plot takes some big leaps & wildly exaggerates reality for the sake of story, but the energy is high, fun tension comes and goes, and there are spots of humor that really land. So… so what if almost none of it was true?
This movie is bad (with a few good moments).
My rating = 2.5/5
