Directed by Jason Reitman, Saturday Night is a high energy and manic paced film. Perfectly capturing backstage chaos, 90 minutes before the premier of a show that nobody believes in. Everybody except producer Lorne Michaels, played by Gabe LaBelle (The Fablemans), and the clock is ticking.
Saturday Night Live is an institution. Even if comedy is not your thing or you were born thirty years later, the acronym SNL is as well known as Star Wars and Weeties. Without SNL there’d be no Blues Brothers, Ghostbusters or Wayne’s World. Our own D Generation down under, Comedy Company and Fast Forward, may not have existed if SNL hadn’t paved the way. It’s impossible to overstate just how much SNL impacted the international pop culture lexicon.
Reitman has been clever to make this film about that moment in time where it almost didn’t happen. Can you imagine a world without SNL?
Nobody by Michael’s knows what’s going on and he’s having a hard time putting it into words for anybody who asks. He’s up against the studio establishment, between thirty to fifty of them. His cast is made up of barely thirty year-old National Lampoon counter culture babies who do it their way, and up to that point, have never really done TV! Resulting in situations that frequently jeopardised the confidence of the one finger in the room that controlled the LIVE switch. David Tebet, played excellently by Willem Dafoe (The Lighthouse).
There’s no way this should have worked at the time. But it did, and the rest is comedy history.
Saturday Night pulls the audience in with a balanced mixture of anxious tension, character drama and laugh out loud situations. The 90 minutes before go time is supposed to be a dress rehearsal. Instead it’s an all out substance fuelled frat party. Derived from witness anecdotes about the night in question.
The casting is great and it’s clear from minute one that each member did their homework on mannerisms and presentation. Dylan O’Brien (Maze Runner series) IS Ackroyd. Ella Hunt (Anna and the Apocalypse) IS Radner. Matt Wood (MacGruber) IS Belushi. Corey Michael Smith (Gotham) IS Chevy Chase. It’s endearing and a little scary at times just how each actor in this film nailed their 1975 counterpart. Props for the hard work.
Keep an eye out for many blink and you’ll miss it, cameo moments from real life SNL cast members. Past and present. This is probably the only downside to the film. There is so much going on, all at once, it’s impossible to track everything that is happening on screen. Though return viewing will be welcome, for sure.
Saturday Night is a great film to catch, in cinemas now. It’s funny, it’s suspenseful and some things are a little disturbing. Such as Milton Bearl’s (played by JK Simmons), womanising 11” dick popping out once or twice. Overall, a great fly on the wall story presenting the chaos of the moment. 8/10 snorts of candy!
