Saturday Night
Director Jason Reitman, who co-wrote the script with Gil Kenan, offers a witty, fast-paced, love letter to the rocky beginnings of a modern comedic touchtone by going behind the scenes in the hours just before the first live performance of Saturday Night Live. With two hours until air, we follow Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle) around the chaotic setting of Studio 8H at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. The film plays up tensions at NBC at the time between the network and Johnny Carson which allowed for the show's creation even if, as the film suggests, no one at NBC expected Saturday Night to ever make it to air.
Among the antics, fights, rebellions, and chaos leading the show's first live performance we get some pretty solid recreations of the Not Ready for Prime-Time Players Dan Aykroyd (Dylan O'Brien), John Belushi (Matt Wood), Chevy Chase (Cory Michael Smith), Jane Curtin (Kim Matula), Garrett Morris (Lamorne Morris), Laraine Newman (Emily Fairn), and Gilda Radner (Ella Hunt). Rachel Sennott is also a stand-out as Rosie Shuster who, like Michaels, spends most of the movie putting out fires and stroking egos.
While there are no big revelations here (Chase was a dick, Belushi was hard to work with, drugs were rampant, the union workers took neither the show nor its star seriously, etc.) what Saturday Night does offer is a smart look at events with tensions ratcheting up minute by minute and a few Easter eggs thrown in for fans of the show. Cinematographer Eric Steelberg adds to the look film making use of The West Wing's walk-and-talk method, allowing us to weave in and out of the various backstage areas and sets with Michaels as he prepares to share a vision, that even he can't quite articulate, to the world. It may not have been a box office hit, but it's a fun flick that should find new life on home video.
Watch the trailer- Title: Saturday Night
- IMDb: link
