The only thing more irritating than self-congratulatory films about the creative process are biopics that contain impressions instead of acting and historical narratives that rewrite the past. Saturday Night stops mere inches short of saying the creation of SNL changed America forever, features a billion character actors playing real-life comedy icons, and plays so loosey goosey with reality that reality’s caboose is permanently goosed. I kinda loved it?
Oh, it’s smug as hell. Writer/director/nepo baby Jason Reitman practically assaults you with jazz. Yes, we get it, the improvisational nature of comedy does mirror the spontaneity of jazz. Now put on some music with words in it. It is also fairly purposeless, outside of snorting nostalgia and elevating Lorne Michaels above “producer of Stuart Saves His Family.” It lionizes Michaels as a champion of “underground counterculture.” He’s now worth half a billion dollars.
None of this should work. So why does it?
Part of it is because “beat the ticking clock” is as irresistible a conceit as “the show must go on,” and this has both. Set less than two hours before the first episode of SNL went live on Saturday night, the film follows Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle) as he flits about putting out fires, stoking egos, and clashing with network executives. We know how it all turns out, so the tension felt is wholly illogical but also undeniable.
Both within the film’s story and outside of it, the cast has no time to do anything of substance. Chevy Chase (Cory Michael Smith) flashes his arrogance. Gilda Radner (Ella Hunt) flashes her optimism. Dan Aykroyd (Dylan O’Brien) is charmingly lusty. Andy Kaufman (Nicholas Braun) is disarmingly trusty. Laraine Newman (Emily Fairn) is insecure. Jane Curtain (Kim Matula) is confident. Garret Morris (Lamorne Morris) is confused why he’s there. John Belushi (Matt Wood) is angry that he’s there. George Carlin (Matthew Rhys) is on cocaine.
They all whiz about and collide like spinning tops. Meanwhile, Michaels faces question after question about what SNL actually is and what he wants it to be. Every single answer written by Reitman and cowriter Gil Kenan is eye-roll inducing. But there’s a sincerity to it that makes it mostly forgivable. Mostly. It so very clearly wants to be about something meaningful. It just isn’t. And that’s okay.
A better movie would have something to say about what it means that Michaels went from artistic revolutionary to gob-stoppingly wealthy. It also would have let Rachel Sennott and Willem Dafoe have more screen time. The former comes the closest to bringing emotional weight to the whole shebang, and the latter is an NBC honcho who is less “damn the man” and more “a damn man.” Also, maybe a better movie wouldn’t have made everyone think about Milton Berle’s genitals so much. I’m 50/50 on that one.
What Saturday Night lacks in substance it overdelivers in atmosphere. It is perplexingly engrossing, maybe even frustratingly enthralling. And if you really think about it, is there a better encapsulation of SNL than watching something that is inexplicably entertaining, that comes so very close to being, saying, or doing something incredibly important but stops just short?
Grade = B+
Other Critical Voices to Consider
Morgan Rojas at Cinemacy says “Despite the SNL we know today feeling lightyears away from the scrappy, turbulent, and drug-riddled frenzy it originated as, it continues to remain a place for the misfits to call home. And as an SNL fan let me tell you, there’s no place like home.”
Lindsay Traves at Pajiba says “It’s an unflattering portrayal of the original cast and crew, but a flattering portrayal of their immense talents. It takes ninety minutes for Lorne to shove his cast into frame and onto NBC airwaves, and the same amount of time for Jason Reitman to try and show how an entire generation of comedians find their voices.”
Rain Jokinen at Mulling Movies says “Watching the mercifully short movie play out, I kept pondering if anyone who has no idea about the history of the show would have any interest in this story, when I, someone who is pretty well versed in the history of the show, could only find mild entertainment in the various ‘impersonations’ that were parading in front of me.”