Saturday Night

October 11, 202470/1005 min
Starring
Ella Hunt, J.K. Simmons, Dylan O' Brian, Willem DaFoe
Written by
Gil Kenan and Jason Reitman
Directed by
Jason Reitman
Run Time
1h 49min
Release Date
October 11th, 2024
Overall Score
Rating Summary

If I could be a fly on the wall, there are many places in time I’d love to have watched things unfold. Some of these would undoubtedly be historical events, but one place I think would be especially fun is Studio 8H, where Saturday Night Live was filmed. Witnessing everything come together for that first show must have been incredible, though I bet the people putting it all together didn’t feel that way. Well, now we all get to be that fly, thanks to Jason Reitman, who places us in that room. And if even half of this is truly what happened, it’s a miracle the show even went on.

Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle) has an idea for a show—a live sketch comedy series that would follow the great Johnny Carson. He’s assembled some great writers and a dream cast of up-and-coming comedians, including Chevy Chase (Cory Michael Smith), Gilda Radner (Ella Hunt), Dan Aykroyd (Dylan O’Brien), John Belushi (Matt Wood), Laraine Newman (Emily Fairn), and Jane Curtin (Kim Matula)—names that are now iconic. Back then, however, they were a risk, and it was Michaels’ job to get it all to work. Things didn’t look promising in the days leading up to the now-famous opening words we all know. The network seemed to want Michaels to fail, and the egos of his cast threatened to make that happen. With the odds seemingly stacked against him, things began to fall into place, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Written by Gil Kenan and Reitman, Saturday Night gives us an almost real-time experience of that fateful night, starting ninety minutes before showtime. Focusing on the kinetic energy of that young cast and places, Reitman places the audience in the middle of it all, delivering quite a rush at times. The screenplay’s driving force is simple: get the show on the air. With that sole focus, the movie never lingers too long in one spot, always propelling itself forward. However, this constant motion means that some of the performances get a bit lost in the shuffle. Even so, Reitman seems to have captured the feel of that night. The pacing isn’t always perfect, and at times the movie feels a bit uneven, but fortunately, the story is smart enough to keep you engaged.

Saturday Night is essentially a love letter to a creative project that’s still going strong some fifty years later. Longtime fans of the show will find plenty to love here, as watching that insanely talented cast pull it together reminds us of the magic they created. Speaking of the cast, it’s large, and they all play their parts well. While none of them necessarily stand out, they function as an ensemble, working together like a well-oiled machine. Saturday Night offers an entertaining look at how the creative process comes together, even when the camera isn’t rolling. Reitman manages to bring suspense out of television history while creating a colorful understanding of what happened that fateful night when we first heard, “Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night!”

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