Jason Reitman’s latest film Saturday Night chronicles the chaos behind the scenes of the first ever episode of Saturday Night Live, and much like the real thing, this chaos serves as both a blessing and a curse. Read our review of Saturday Night below.
The film is largely shown from the perspective of SNL creator Lorne Michaels, played here by The Fabelmans’ star Gabriel LaBelle, as he tries to navigate a production that is bursting at the seams. From fires on set to studio executives breathing down Lorne’s neck, director Jason Reitman certainly builds the tension of that hour and a half before showtime.
The turmoil on the set is never dull, but I often found myself enjoying the quieter moments more. All the tense scenes between David Tebet (Willem Dafoe) and Lorne Michaels were my particular favorites, with a satisfying but expected payoff right at the end. Dafoe of course is bringing his A-game here and steals every scene.
As far as the cast goes, LaBelle is great as Lorne Michaels. Cory Michael Smith as Chevy Chase also gets a lot of focus. Smith practically disappears in the role and really does an excellent job of portraying Chevy. Rachel Sennott brings some much needed calm to the film as Lorne’s wife Rosie Shuster, often deescalating before things boil over.
Unfortunately, it felt like much of the women cast members (sans Rachel Sennott’s Rosie) were lost in the chaos, Gilda Radner (Ella Hunt) and Laraine Newman (Emily Newman) probably only had their names mentioned once or twice throughout and never really got a plot beat of their own. Dylan O’Brien as Dan Aykroyd also gets very little play, which seemed a little odd considering the history between Reitman’s father Ivan and Aykroyd.
Reitman serves some fun direction with oners that bring you into the frenzy of the set. The only downside of these scenes is that sometimes the score felt overbearing and too pronounced. I don’t know if it was by design or not but sometimes I had trouble understanding the words coming out of the characters mouths.
Overall the film proved to be a fun ride and a nice tribute to the comedians of a bygone era of SNL. While there were some elements I wished didn’t get lost in the insanity, Reitman harnesses that energy into a very fun rollercoaster of a film.
Saturday Night was directed by Jason Reitman and written by Gil Kenan. The film stars Gabriel LaBelle, Rachel Sennott, Cory Michael Smith, Ella Hunt, Dylan O’Brien, Lamorne Morris, Nicholas Braun, Emily Newman, Ella Hunt, Finn Wolfhard, Willem Dafoe, and more. The film is produced by Columbia Pictures. In theaters now.
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