Review | Live from Jason Reitman, it’s ‘Saturday Night!’

Photo Collage by Braylan Enscoe, Staff Photographer

Spoiler alert: This review contains mild spoilers for “Saturday Night.”

Did you know that the 90 minutes preceding the live premiere of the first episode of “Saturday Night Live” on Oct. 11, 1975 was — quite possibly — the most stressful experience of anyone ever to have worked on a film set?

It’s an experience that Lorne Michaels, Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd, Rosie Shuster, Dick Ebersol, John Belushi and many, many more endured between 10 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. on that 1970s New York evening in October, and that’s the experience that Jason Reitman and Gil Kenan want to share with the world in “Saturday Night.” It’s a hard 90 minutes to present. Reitman’s comedy shines in its quieter moments, but when everything’s in disorder and disarray, “Saturday Night” comes across as just a tad too chaotic.

At around 10 p.m., Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle) is faced with rallying nearly every party involved in the production of the live sketch comedy show. It’s time to get into gear, put pencil to paper, cut the funny business (and yet he’s surrounded by comedians), put those costumes on and run those lines. Maybe such a production would be easy if a single other person was as committed as he was to the piece’s success. It’s not that they weren’t committed at all, but Michaels stands out as the young executive most passionate about the development of comedy innovation and the voice of a young generation. 

Chief opposition to his vision comes from all levels. Entertainment and television executives, like the scary Dave Tebet (Willem Dafoe) and sleazy Milton Berle (J.K. Simmons), either don’t believe in or write-off the series. Ebersol (Cooper Hoffman) has stuck his neck out for Michaels to get him this far, but with wardrobe racks getting trashed, actors brawling in the dressing room and light fixtures breaking down, he’s not exactly quick to back the show up. These characters stand in as antagonistic forces and chief character relationships to Michaels. They add structure and audience investment to a film that, when scenes are devoted to pure chaos and comedy, feels a little hard to invest into. 

In the midst of the non-stop movement, there’s quieter moments that also establish traditional story structure and genuine investment in characters and their goals. Chiefly, that investment is thrown at Michaels and his wife, Shuster (Rachel Sennott). Michaels is so genuinely, blindly committed to the series’ success, and Shuster is a lighthouse in a world where nearly everyone else is a storm. 

The ensemble supporting cast shines in many moments, too. Dylan O’Brien, Corey Michael Smith and Nicholas Podany star as Aykroyd, Chase and Billy Crystal, respectively, and all three actors are superb. Podany nails Crystal’s vocal inflections, while Smith’s jokes as Chase run a mile a minute, making him stand out whenever he’s on set.

Aykroyd, though, is quite possibly my favorite addition in the film. O’Brien sounds so close to the real-life actor, speaking just as fast as Chase but sometimes telling jokes and calling people names that other cast members don’t even understand. It’s an entertaining form of comedy, and it keeps Aykroyd as one of the cast members you’re most excited to see walk into frame. 

Due to the strength of its actors and supporting “characters,” “Saturday Night” keeps itself from going completely off the rails. Yet, with how many real-life figures there are and how the film unevenly jumps between them all, many fall to the wayside. It’s a facet of the film that makes its more chaotic moments difficult to fully be immersed in and enjoy. The chaotic sequences are entertaining, yes, but they also feel a bit disjointed.  

In a weird way, “Saturday Night” mirrors the 90 minutes it’s based on. Its entirety is entertaining yet sometimes confusing and chaotic — but it all leads to a sweet, intriguing, everything-is-wrapped-up-nicely ending. Thinking back on the film, I’m drawn to a question it continuously presents about what “Saturday Night” even is. If we have to answer it, maybe it's a question that is answered differently by every person watching this picture in theaters. On another note, maybe the answer is indirect, and the reverence the filmmakers give to these figures and series is a testament to the show’s importance. 

Whatever the answer, “Saturday Night” is smart to pose it: the reverence for the source material, in tandem with a strong cast and effectively-written characters, drew me in and kept my overall thoughts positive. As I watched, though, I couldn’t shake the feeling that, when jokes didn’t land and the chaos wasn’t working, it was time to cut off the cameras.