Saturday Night

Here's a project that could've gone wrong in a million ways.  This year's SATURDAY NIGHT, which tracks the eventful ninety minutes or so leading up to the debut episode of NBC's titular comedy sketch show back in 1975, does most everything beautifully.  Director/co-writer Jason Reitman finds just the right energy for what feels like a hybrid of films such as NOISES OFF, BROADCAST NEWS, and BIRDMAN, and while this probably does a better job of capturing the essence of these events than accurately depicting them, I had a blast with this.

The casting was crucial.  I feel they pulled it off.  Leading the chaos is Gabriel LaBelle as SN (later SNL) creator Lorne Michaels.  He wanders Rockefeller Center massaging monstrous egos and putting out fires - yes, literally at one point when some stage lights ignite a sofa.  I'm not sure if it was intentional, but LaBelle kinda looks like Steven Spielberg circa '75. He believably runs the gamut of anxiety to hopelessness. Perhaps also embodies the spirit of the young director as he managed JAWS the same year?  LaBelle also worked with Spielberg on THE FABELMANS. 

Many of the actors do look and sound like their real life counterparts.  Get their mannerisms down.  Cory Michael Smith as Chevy Chase,  Dylan O'Brien as Dan Aykroyd.  Matt Wood as John Belushi.  Ella Hunt as Gilda Radner.  Lamorne Morris as Garrett Morris (no relation).  Kim Matula as Jane Curtin.  Emily Fairn as Lorraine Newman.  Rachel Sennott as Rosie Shuster.  All seemed to have studied well.   Matthew Rhys' performance as George Carlin is so dead on I just couldn't stop laughing whenever he appeared.  Tommy Dewey's take on caustic writer Michael O'Donoghue is also amusing. J.K. Simmons portrayal of Milton Berle must've have been great fun, and he's clearly enjoying it.

The interactions among these volatile personalities are well developed in Reitman and Gil Kenan's screenplay.  A lot like how I would imagine them. SATURDAY NIGHT does, ironically, succumb to some Hollywood moments, like cutting to big reactions when someone delivers a stellar bit.  Especially near the end of the film, when Andy Kaufman (Nicolas Braun) brings out his phonograph to show NBC exec David Tebet (Willem Dafoe, in his 101st movie appearance this year) what Saturday Night is all about.

The film does get a bit self conscious about that, having characters wonder aloud what they're doing, if putting on the show is worth it.  Thankfully Reitman doesn't get carried away with scenes where the Knowledge of What Was to Come informs the dialogue to make it sound prescient.    A pair of bravura scenes - Aykroyd's skit as the sex object of female construction workers and Morris' choice of a song to sing can be viewed as 21st century revisionism, a "woke" (boy I hate that word) approach as well.  Your mileage may vary. 

The editing by Nathan Orloff and Shane Reid is breathless, as is Reitman's direction, but never too much so.  That would've been deadly.  The film actually takes a breath now and again.  Some of the inevitable philosophical/life moments work (when Michaels and Radner watch Belushi ice skate) and some are awkward (Shuster explaining her relationship with Michaels to Aykroyd). Minor quibbles and all, SATURDAY NIGHT is unmissable for fans of this groundbreaking show, which is coming up on its fiftieth anniversary.

P.S. - The propulsive musical score is by Jon Batiste, who also plays Billy Preston.