Saturday Night Review

A Delightful Love Letter and A Tedious Parody

While watching Jason Reitman's passionate and spirited retelling of Saturday Night Live's premiere in 1975, I couldn't help but think of another SNL alum, Kristen Wiig's character in Walk Hard: A Dewey Cox Story (STAY WITH ME). If you are unfamiliar with the parody masterpiece Walk Hard, it has single-handedly ruined music bio-pics since it is a perfect satire of the genre. Perfectly making fun of the repeated tropes and manipulatively emotionally dumb moments of those films, but I'd like to emphasize Wiig's character. She plays the first wife of the titular character played by John C. Reiley, and her whole bit for a few scenes is yelling at Dewey Cox, "YOU'RE NEVER GOING TO MAKE IT - GIVE IT UP DEWEY" even though he's having success, after success. It's a significant bit and is the whole bit of Saturday Night, where people are constantly running up to Lorne Michaels, telling him he's going fail and him solving problems over and over again.

As fun as that bit can be at times, it grows rather old by the end. I loved some of the performances here and was impressed that many actors invoked real-life people instead of bad impersonations (there are a few of those, too), but it feels like the film is trying to tell so much it feels like our time with each iconic character is cast thin. The film captures the chaotic energy that we've come to know and love about the history of SNL, but it sometimes feels so full of itself. Like, please relax, Reitman; it's just SNL, for god sake. I am all for directors being devoted to what they love, but it felt like it was insisting upon itself at a certain point. It's a serious tone, but with its goofy vulgar humor, it wouldn't mix well and land flat at times. Overall, the performances and the film can be a whirlwind of fun at times, and I was excited to see the show finally make its iconic debut.

The film centers on Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle), the underdog genius and T.V. revolutionary visionary who helped put NBC back on the map. It also focuses on how he managed all the moving parts of this legendary cast and crew that made genuine T.V. history. The weight of the SNL legacy is palpable as we see Michaels handle technical, talent, and executive issues throughout the night, running around with absolute confidence that what they will do will matter and change the world. My issue with all this is my foundational issue with this semi-new genre of movies: Brand Bio-pics. For most of these types of films, we know how the story goes and are rooting for billion-dollar companies to succeed, the underdog in the story. A great pairing of this movie would be AIR (2023), but that film succeeds more because most real-life people are unknowns, and we have such a long, rich, and documented history with the O.G. cast of SNL. AIR did a great bait and switch where I am rooting my ass off for this charismatic no-name guy played by Matt Damon to sign Michael Jordan (who's not featured in the movie, and that's done to great effect), and I forget I am being a complete shill to NIKE. I never had that illusion when watching Saturday Night. The stakes just weren't there as chaotic as it was.

There's so much I like about Saturday Night. The young and upcoming cast was phenomenal at times, and as I said, many invoked the essence of the character they were playing, which I will always prefer. Gabriel Labelle captures Lorne Michaels's monotone but determined energy, and the movie truly moves through him. Dylan O'Brien, Cory Michael Smith, Dan Aykroyd, and Chevy Chase were sexy, rude, and charismatic as hell. Lamorne Morris is easily the funniest and most sincere of the cast as Garrett Morris. Ella Hunt, Emily Fairn, and Kim Matula are electric, witty, and so full of heart with their performances of Gilda Radner, Laraine Newman, and Jane Curtin. Rachel Sennot as Rosie Shuster and Cooper Hoffman as Dick Ebersol both pop off the screen as always, especially letting Hoffman cook in a stairwell scene I loved, but it was again another scene just beating you over the head how important this all is. I didn't care for a couple of impressions like Nicholas Braun, Matthew Rhys, Matt Wood, and others who seemed to be doing okay, like amusing versions of the characters, but nothing interesting. We have this extraordinary young cast, but we never get enough time to enjoy what they put out there.

The direction of the film is a bit strange and annoying at times. It feels like we are just being assaulted and exhausted with this Birdman (2014) and Uncut Gems (2019) end-of-the-world anxiety feeling with the constant hand-held camera behind the back following movement, which is to instill into us the chaos of the night. Still, we are constantly reminded of what happened a scene ago. Halfway through the movie, Willem Dafoe plays executive David Tebet, who grabs Lorne Michaels and is like, "Having a rough night?" we flashback to all the zany moments of the film, like, why? I just watched that. Why are you flashing back? Weird stuff like that happens constantly, but it does have that 70s film look, and the sets and costumes are done well, so a point back to Saturday Night. This mixed feeling about the film's direction is a vital part of my overall impression of the film.

To be entertained but also annoyed. That was my experience of Saturday Night. I loved some solid performances and learning an amalgamation of SNL history compacted into one night with exciting energy, but ultimately, I only found a little work here. It's just so tropey at times. The weird pacing and tone mixed with indulgent behavior for something like SNL was a strange move. It is punk-rock what SNL did, but treating it all like life or death is rather silly. SNL fans will rejoice, but I will likely move on to the next sketch.

Final Score: 6.5/10

Written by Kevin J. Pettit

P.S. I despised how they presented George Carlin, especially after his documentary and noted drug history; it felt like an injustice to his legacy.