OK, just so we are clear here: Saturday Night is NOT a biopic on the Bay City Rollers.
See what I did there? So kids, in the ‘70s… never mind. (Also a reference to this review.)
The behind-the-scenes stories of SNL are legendary, but the story of what almost wasn’t the premiere episode fifty years ago is almost too crazy to be true. Jason Reitman takes the task of bringing that story to the screen with his latest in Saturday Night.
As a point of reference, the title of this film IS historically accurate. Broadcast legend Howard Cosell already had a variety show called Saturday Night Live, so creator Lorne Michaels (played here by Gabriel LaBelle from The Fablemans) had to do without the last word for a bit.
Taking place the ninety minutes before the first episode went to air, Michaels has to juggle his new concept getting to the masses while dealing with standards and practices (Catherine Curtin… no relation), network execs Dick Ebersol (Cooper Hoffman) and Dave Tebet (Willem Dafoe), a cast of unknowns with a myriad of issues themselves, a crew that only has half of a work ethic overall, a writing staff that is unrelenting led by Michael O’Donoghue (Tommy Dewey, who is one of many performances that is DEAD ON accurate), a host who is George Carlin (Matthew Rhys, who absolutely channels that legend), and trying to find a way to take three hours’ worth of material into ninety minutes.
The first hour of this film is actually told in real-time with a bunch of continuous shots, giving depth to the chaos around Michaels as he fights for not only his career but for all of those around him. Add to that the fact that it was completely shot on 16mm film (a rarity) to add to its aesthetic, Saturday Night works on every level. For the most part, the cast itself are relative unknowns; the specific standouts go to Cory Michael Smith plays Chevy Chase to absolute perfection to the point where I totally did not recognize him as Edward Nygma from Gotham and Kim Matula as Jane Curtin shows the balance of nerves and confidence that I have wondered was truly a part of who she was at that point. Also, Nicholas Braun plays both Andy Kaufman and Jim Henson so distinctly that had I not read that after the fact, there is NO WAY I would have realized they were the same guy. And music supervisor Jon Batiste gets a fun turn as Billy Preston, who features the only artistic license taken here with Lamorne Morris’ Garrett Morris (also no relation), but it is still fun within the context of this insane story.
Being a self-proclaimed aficionado of SNL, I can say that most of what I saw on the screen checks out to the stories I have read and heard about that hour-and-a-half in October of 1975, and Reitman and co-writer Gil Kenan have brought it to the big screen on a way where I felt all of the emotions the cast and crew were feeling knowing that there was a chance that they may not have been truly ready for prime time in the eyes of those outside of their circle.
See what I did there too? Yeah, I know. That’s why I don’t write these scripts, and also why you should see this film that I did not write… so you know it should be good.
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