Saturday Night Live is a very American broadcast, but it has gained a global reputation through clips across YouTube. The late-night sketch show has grown to astronomical levels, with each new season having an array of A-list talent, who are integrated into the week’s sketches. However, Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night takes us all the way back to 11 October 1975, and the first episode of the show.
If you know anything about Saturday Night Live, you will know it’s fast-paced and frenetic, with a production that is constantly moving throughout the week before the show goes live. As a quote opening the film from Lorne Michaels, the show's founder says “The show doesn’t go on because it’s ready. It goes on because it’s 11:30”. This is the essence of what the film is trying to capture. Set 90 minutes before the debut show’s air, it portrays a minute-by-minute re-enactment of the carnage, nostalgia and chaos, in an attempt to capture what makes SNL one of the greatest sketch shows in the world.
At times the film can capture that frenetic action, through fast-paced talking and a constantly panning camera, struggling to keep up. However, for the most part, Saturday Night is a disappointingly flat experience, only saved by its all-star cast of up-and-comers such as Gabriel LaBelle, Rachel Sennot and Cooper Hoffman. Their performances hold up what is otherwise quite a bland experience, especially for a narrative that is holding all the cards to be frenetic and chaotic. It should feel like a Safdie brothers film or an episode of The Bear, but this feels tremendously tame in comparison to those examples.
Likewise, you’d expect a film attempting to re-create the first episode of SNL to be more humorous and laugh-out-loud, but Reitman and co-writer Gil Kenan, deliver a feeble attempt at comedy. It is much more of a chuckler, and a lot of the laughs don’t land. It is the sort of thing where you go I should be laughing at this but I’m not. Likewise, with so many moving parts, it struggles to create enough moments of character development. Comics such as Billy Crystal, Chevy Chase and Dan Ackroyd fall to the wayside, and in an attempt to be fast-paced and chaotic, it loses the ability to have interesting characters.
It is only towards the final act that things start to come together. The film’s central character, Lorne Michaels has a moment of clarity, where he begins to question the true purpose of the show. Although it does feel a little convenient, with an audience suddenly appearing after an hour of struggling to sell a ticket, it is against all odds that the film does stick the landing, with a final act that flies by and has you glued to the screen.
For a film about 90 minutes before the opening show of Saturday Night, it is rather tame. The runtime should fly by, as if we are the producers of the show running out of time. However, it is rather pedestrian in its attempted freneticism, lacking energy and zip. It is neither stressful nor calming enough to create interesting characters. However, an uplifting and heartfelt ending that reflects the show save what is a pretty mediocre film.
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