✯✯½

It’s hard to deny how much of a presence in popular culture Saturday Night Live has maintained over the years. But to repeat the very obvious, the show has always been incredibly hit or miss, even as certain sketches may have remained more popular than others. That might just as well be a perfect summation of what’s made Saturday Night Live what it is: you’re never certain whether it’s going to be the funniest thing ever, or an absolute trainwreck. The latter may very well capture the production of the show’s very first episode, like it’s some sort of a legendary moment in American pop culture history. But what favours does Jason Reitman actually do with this approach in mind?

Set within the 90 minutes prior to the very first episode of Saturday Night Live airing on NBC (then called Saturday Night), the film captures the panicked state of mind that Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle) enters upon preparing for what supposedly is some sort of bold new experiment for live television. And in doing so, we’re also getting a glimpse of the tensions that unfoldsed between John Belushi (Matt Wood) and Chevy Chase (Cory Michael Smith), the general lack of faith from studio heads, and even Michaels’s own attempts to maintain his romance with Rosie Shuster (Rachel Sennott). Frankly, Reitman’s interest is in capturing that chaos behind the shoot of any episode of Saturday Night Live, effectively lionizing Lorne Michaels in that process.

Where Jason Reitman seems to have found a means of turning the chaotic production of the first ever Saturday Night Live episode into something entertaining derives itself from the real-time format. The moment the film starts, we are merely 90 minutes away from the moment when the show is supposed to air. Anything can go wrong, and so much did go wrong, and that’s where most of the film’s funniest gags come about. It could start as simply as the lights falling off and setting fire to the set, or even the writers getting completely stoned, or even Chevy Chase picking a fight with whoever his next co-star is. Reitman fits in so much in this package, even going back a few more minutes as we see that there’s even more than what Lorne Michaels can see, for better or worse.

Then comes Saturday Night presiding on the idea that Saturday Night Live is the next big thing on television. Jason Reitman and co-writer Gil Kenan stick so closely to this belief, without really interrogating Lorne Michaels himself, let alone the sort of work culture that he had indeed cultivated on Saturday Night Live, all because we’re seeing so many recognizable names fighting one another constantly with the hopes that they get a chance at being “the top spot” on a show that they have no idea about. This approach only leaves the movie feeling like a series of skits that are occasionally funny, instead of feeling like a complete picture of what really went on behind the first episode of Saturday Night Live.

For longtime fans of the show, it’s easy enough to catch onto many familiar faces being recreated with relative ease: in particular, I found myself very impressed with the portrayals of Billy Crystal and Dan Aykroyd. But outside of Gabriel LaBelle’s very committed performance as Lorne Michaels, these performances don’t ever really feel like they’re individual characters as much as they are impressions that would stick the landing for audiences who know who’s portraying who. Granted, I think many would recognize faces like Andy Kaufman, Jim Henson, or George Carlin when they see them – but there’s nothing else to show themselves as fully fleshed characters beyond a routine.

When Saturday Night Live was at its worst, it was agonizingly unfunny. Saturday Night doesn’t hit those lows, but it never rises to the show’s highs either. It seems almost like Reitman’s reverence for the show, only ends up glossing over how it never always stuck the landing – opting for a hagiographic portrait of Lorne Michaels almost entirely. Perhaps that might be the most disappointing thing about Saturday Night in turn, because it never seems to let the ensemble speak for themselves, as it seems everything is coming forth through Lorne Michaels. This ends up inhibiting Rachel Sennott’s performance as his then-wife Rosie Shuster, who never really has enough room to let herself speak out beyond vague praises of his work.

Yet there’s at least enough to recognize from the show’s best segments, especially when some of them are recreated. That might be what almost makes Saturday Night worth watching for longtime fans, because Reitman captures such attention to detail with recreating the look and feel of the 1970’s. Even down to the point where cinematographer Eric Steelberg is taking his cues from Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Birdman when capturing a production where anything can go wrong in measured takes. At times, I think it lifts even the worst tendencies into something gold, but alas, it never saves the film from extended periods of tedium.

Here I am though, absolutely not a fan of Saturday Night Live, but I know exactly who I’m seeing well enough to be able to point at the screen at impressions I recognize. Frankly, I am also far less interested in something that waxes poetic about how big a risk Saturday Night Live is, as much as I’d be in for a story that captures how chaotic it can really be, when you’re feeling like you’re set up to fail, just as Lorne Michaels was. Knowing the sorts of films that Jason Reitman can make, it’s disappointing enough that he just chose to go for the safest possible route with Saturday Night.

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Watch the trailer right here.

All images via Sony.

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Directed by Jason Reitman
Screenplay by Gil Kenan, Jason Reitman
Produced by Jason Blumenfeld, Peter Rice, Jason Reitman, Gil Kenan
Starring Gabriel LaBelle, Rachel Sennott, Cory Michael Smith, Ella Hunt, Dylan O’Brien, Emily Fairn, Matt Wood, Lamorne Morris, Kim Matula, Finn Wolfhard, Cooper Hoffman, Andrew Barth Feldman, Kaia Gerber, Tommy Dewey, Willem Dafoe, Matthew Rhys, J. K. Simmons
Premiere Date: August 31, 2024 (Telluride)
Running Time: 109 minutes