Saturday Night

Writer/Director: Jason Reitman

Writer: Gil Kenan

Saturday Night focuses on the 90 minutes leading up to the first broadcast of what would become one of the most influential shows in comedy, Saturday Night Live. It gives us a behind the scenes look as creator Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle) tries to coral together his comedy troupe of unknowns into a show to be broadcast nationwide. He has to fight studio execs, producers, crew and the egos of his stars including Chevy Chase (Cory Michael Smith), John Belushi (Matt Wood) and Dan Akroyd. Can they pull it off and go live?

A bit like Saturday Night Live itself, this is a film that almost doesn’t work, but then by some unexplained miracle it just about pulls it off!

Shot as a behind the scenes docudrama, it attempts to capture the hectic energy behind the show that would revolutionise TV comedy. It spends most of its time following Michaels as he stumbles from crisis to crisis. Whether it’s Belushi. Chase, Billy Crystal(Nicholas Podany) trying to negotiate his slot or Jim Henson (Nicholas Braun) trying to find lines for his Muppets. He’s also fighting  execs and TV’s current guard such as Johnny Carson and Milton Berle (J. K. Simmons).  But this structure also means it never seems to get a handle on its story often feeling a little ill disciplined and confused. But what Reitman does well is pull it all together and a bit like SNL for all of the madness around it, when it all comes together it works a treat. And that’s a compliment for something that for quite a long time felt a bit of a mess.

While it doesn’t all work it does capture the anarchy of SNL well and you feel thrust into the middle of it all as the camera chases down hallways and into dressing rooms.

Saturday Night tries to capture the anarchy and energy of the first airing of a show that would become an institution. For a while it doesn’t feel like it is going to work but its last 10 minutes bring it together well. Making it an enjoyable look at the start of a TV institution.