REVIEW: "Saturday Night" (2024)

WRITER'S NOTE: The following was originally posted on my Facebook page on October 17, 2024. 

It’ll be 50 years next year since the long-running, late-night sketch comedy series, Saturday Night Live, made its debut on the NBC network. Director/co-writer Jason Reitman and co-writer Gil Kenan have now crafted a raw and brilliantly detailed recreation of the 90 minutes leading up to the show’s premiere broadcast in New York City on October 11, 1975. 

Reitman has described Saturday Night (released on October 11th of this year, oddly enough) as a ticking-clock thriller, with cast and crew literally racing against not only time, but also cynical and impatient executives, verbally insulting creative differences, and an overwhelming, not to mention countercultural, concept that had never before been seen or done on television. Shot on 16mm film stock, the movie’s period production design presents a thorough recreation of the now-famous Studio 8H at Rockefeller Center. 

Just as impressive are the spot-on characterizations and personalities from the young cast, who fit their respective “Not Ready For Primetime Players” like gloves. Standouts include Ella Hunt as Gilda Radner, Dylan O’Brien as Dan Ackroyd, Lamorse Morris as Garrett Morris (no relation), and even Nicholas Podany as a young Billy Crystal (who, many may not know, was originally slated to appear on that first episode but was cut at the last minute). But it’s Gabriel LaBelle who carries the film as the determined show producer Lorne Michaels, even with some (like Morris) wondering why they’re there, or what the show even is. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that inaugural musical guest Billy Preston sings, “Nothing From Nothing.” 

The live music score by Jon Batiste (who also plays Preston in the film) recalls Jon Brion’s music from Punch-Drunk Love and Antonio Sánchez’s score from Birdman, in terms of a very rhythmic and break-neck pace. This is the first film, that I can recall, seeing since Danny Boyle’s equally-terrific Steve Jobs biopic from 2015, which also chronicled intense behind-the-scenes drama during some crucial turning points in popular culture. 

With that in mind, Saturday Night is both a fascinating and maddening experience. To be fair, there have been countless books, articles, and other stories about the behind-the-scenes drama at SNL over the decades. And, lest we forget, the 1970s was, indeed, a radical time. While Lorne tells us, "Art is about a measure of sacrifice and tears,” sometimes those measures are ugly. 

Some of the show’s writers had a tendency to sneak certain jokes into the scripts to get passed strict censors, with one particular religious joke in the film, I found to be ruthless and offensive. That same group was even against guest star Jim Henson and his Muppet creations. On the flip side, cocaine-fueled guest George Carlin (played by Matthew Rhys) was completely against the whole concept of sketch comedy. Then there are the arrogant and/or narcissistic portrayals of late-night host Johnny Carson and comedian Milton Bearl (played by J.K. Simmons). Add to all of this a few references to extramarital affairs (Michael’s then-wife and writing partner Rosie Shuster was also dating Ackroyd at the time), and general discussions of comedy—what’s funny and what isn’t, SNL included—remain a point of discussion and debate 50 years later, and counting. 

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