SATURDAY NIGHT (2024)

Newer (often younger) viewers, unfamiliar with past generations of Saturday Night Live, may be unaware of the extent of SNL’s cultural impact and reasoning for its perpetual real estate in the zeitgeist. The show (and its players) were at the forefront of comedy, being that it help push past those first boundaries and for continuously reinventing itself with choice cast members, most notably when the show’s popularity was in peril. Alas, for those of us who remember, and for the makers of this film, the days of its risk-taking are long gone. In Saturday Night, Jason Reitman begins the SNL journey 90 minutes prior to its debut episode. Anchored by a 30-year-old Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle) frantically assembling his cast, dodging executives, making final cuts, and coaxing a curmudgeonly John Belushi (Matt Wood) to sign his contract. It looks and sounds as hectic as one would imagine, so much so that it’s hard to hear much of the banter, with its overlapping dialogue and unrelenting jazz score punctuating the frenzy throughout the film. The disposition is very Aaron Sorkin-like (good) with efficient exposition within long tracking shots à la Robert Altman (very good). The cast is quite capable, especially Lamorne Morris portraying a frustrated Garrett Morris, who, a denouncer of tokenism, questions his place in the show. Equally good is Cory Michael Smith, who embodies an already extremely cocky Chevy Chase. Nicholas Braun plays both Andy Kaufman and Jim Henson, the later somewhat feebly for some reason, and both resembling Nicholas’s character Greg from Succession. The women of yesteryear are not given much opportunity to shine (comedically), however you do learn some interesting aspects of Lorne’s marriage to Rosie Shuster (Rachel Sennott). Dylan O’Brien nails Dan Aykroyd’s frenetic cadence, but perhaps he should have laid off on the gym prior to shooting as his physic is distractingly 2024 in what is supposed to be 1975.  And LaBelle capably carries the film as Lorne, however there is but a little hint of an impression. Overall, Saturday Night is a chaotic trip that holds your attention as it shows us a man and his comrades daring to unleash a new brand of New York style comedy onto the masses, however I can’t help but wonder if there is a spoof somewhere in there. The film lurches into melodrama with the clock ticking and a sweaty finger on the stop button…for a phenomena that we, young and old, all know has been great and ho-hum for 50 years. 

WATCH OR NOT: WATCH

Additional musings: It’s a lot more entertaining than watching SNL in 2024.