And, really, isn’t that exactly what a movie about SNL should be?
Ah, Saturday Night Live, a bastion of television that—as both a non-American and a person with very little interest in pop culture beyond what’s happening on a cinema screen—I have never watched. I’ve seen clips on the internet, I suppose, but apart from that one bit where Daniel Craig says, ‘Ladies and Gentlemen—the Weeknd’ I couldn’t tell you a single famous thing that has happened on it.
And, look, I’m not trying to flaunt my inexperienced youth here, but I have no clue who George Carlin is. Or John Belushi. Or Chevvy Chase (apart from the fact that he was on Community). All of this to say: Saturday Night was going to have to do a lot to make me care about it—there would be no coasting along on nostalgia, or even on simple recognition.
And, indeed, for the first half an hour or so of Saturday Night, I wouldn’t have cared if the projector in my screen caught fire, and I was forced to go home early. A dramatization of the zany antics that immediately preceded the airing of the first episode of SNL simply wasn’t emotionally interesting. And yet, the last half hour of the movie was a different story…
Live From New York…
With only ninety minutes until Saturday Night airs for the first time, showrunner and creator Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle) faces a seemingly unending series of obstacles to getting the show functioning the way he wants. From malfunctioning equipment and missing cast members to fistfights and censorship, it’s looking increasingly likely that Lorne’s show is destined to fail before it can even begin.
From the very beginning, Saturday Night seeks to capture the febrile air of anticipation that encompasses the cast members of a live production in the hours and minutes leading up to a debut performance. I haven’t had to do anything in front of a live crowd for some years now, but I think director Jason Reitman did a great job bottling that essence and selling it to the audience.
Unfortunately, the lack of real stakes hindered my enjoyment of most of the first half of the movie. Sure, it was fun seeing Nicholas Braun oscillate in his dual roles as both Andy Kaufman and Jim Henson (both of whom I knew of beforehand, thank you very much), and watching the set collapse (sometimes literally) injected some enjoyable chaos into the proceedings, but I didn’t really get a sense for what Saturday Night was trying to say.
You Know, I’m Something of a Comedian Myself
There’s an attempt at making the night extra personal for Lorne Michaels by occasionally emphasising his near-defunct relationship with SNL writer Rosie Shuster—played by Rachel Sennott—but the whole thing is one big shrug, with neither of them seeming to care all the much about the collapse of their marriage.
Fans of Spider-Man will be happy to see J.K. Simmons and Willem Defoe showing up in the odd scene to flaunt their impressive acting talents, but it really isn’t until Lorne’s confidence in his ability to pull off the show begins to waver in the second half of the movie that Saturday Night really started to mean something.
At a core story level, it’s just not that interesting to watch conflict slide off a character’s back without making any impact. Once that conflict actually starts to affect a character’s mindset—once it starts to break them down and change them—that’s when things get interesting. While I do think this starts happening a little too late into the movie, it is entertaining when it gets there.
It’s here that the plot really starts to emphasise the underdog elements of this story; it's here that it becomes a hard movie to root against.
Punchline
Things are a little wobbly when it comes to the humour of the sketches. Some are indeed funny—I’ve gone online and watched the real version of the ‘March Comes in Like a Lion’ bit a few times since watching the movie—but there’s also a tangible disconnect between what audiences in the 70s found humorous and what we do today which leads to a couple of awkward, unintentionally unfunny moments.
Nevertheless, I did find myself getting wrapped up in the story eventually and walked out with a smile on my face. There’s not much happening below the surface of this one—and I can’t imagine anyone giving the movie another thought once it’s gone from the cinemas—but, hey, if you’re bored some Saturday night, you could do worse.
Thanks for reading my review of Saturday Night. If you liked it, consider checking out my wishlist or buying me a cup of coffee at https://ko-fi.com/kieranobrien or below.
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