Papyrus. Star Wars Undercover Boss. The mere existence of Andy Samberg and The Lonely Island. Saturday Night Live has impacted our generation’s lives in more ways than we can imagine, but we really never see where or how the iconic comedy show started. Theorize no longer, as Jason Reitman has graced us with 2024’s Saturday Night. Originally titled SNL 1975, the film follows a young and ambitious Lorne Michaels (The Fabelmans breakout Gabriel LaBelle) as he wrangles an inebriated cast and crew in the 90 minutes before the live broadcast of the first Saturday Night Live.
Saturday Night is a mixed bag if I’ve ever seen one. A fan of Reitman’s past work myself (Juno has a special place in my heart) I was excited to see how his direction would compliment such a hectic plot. Frankly, Reitman directed the hell out of this. It echoes a lot of the hectic tone and suffocating atmosphere of a Josh and Benny Safdie film like Good Time. Despite Good Time being a thriller, the film has an unrelenting anxiety to it that refuses to let up until it decides the audience is worthy of it. In the case of Saturday Night, Reitman recreates the Safdie brother’s style of anxiety, but specifically applies it to working on a set. The camerawork supports this too, often utilizing dynamic long takes that follow the characters as the clock ticks closer to 11:30pm.
The cast is crucial to the film pulling together, each actor embodying the comedy icons that received their big break following the events of the first broadcast. Gabriel LaBelle carries, understanding the assignment and portraying a young and starry-eyed Lorne Michaels while also being on the verge of a complete breakdown. LaBelle’s performance is complimented by the likes of Dylan O’Brien (MTV’s Teen Wolf) as Dan Aykroyd and Rachel Sennott (Bodies Bodies Bodies) as Rosie Shuster. Despite these well-known names, there are a handful of up-and-coming actors that will surely receive more work due to their performances herein. A couple of particulars include Corey Michael Smith (May December) as Chevy Chase and Ella Hunt (Anna and the Apocalypse) as Gilda Radner. The cast as a whole emphasizes the next generation of performing talent in Hollywood while portraying iconic 1970s comedians, fusing generations together in a way not yet seen.
Despite the ensemble’s talents, it feels as if some cast members get more attention than others, resulting in an unbalanced amount of screentime. Perhaps the film could have worked better as a miniseries focusing on each member of the original cast individually with Lorne as the common thread tying them all together. My reasoning for this issue seems to be that they were constrained by the runtime being a tight 90 minutes, but they do their best with what little time they have. It generally feels broader than it should be and seems more based on accounts from PAs on set rather than, say, the cast and Lorne themselves.
The film also makes an effort to display the spirit of New York City evident in the show itself and its success. This is delivered by LaBelle in the final act, but by this point the audience has an understanding of how the show withstood 50 years on NBC. The tight-knit community of the set is clear by this point in the film, and while it certainly endears the audience it feels as if it is telling rather than showing. The main theme as a whole is rather vague, but it can be extrapolated that the film is clearly asserting the importance of the location it was conceived in.
At the end of the day, Saturday Night is one of the better “based on a true story” films we’ve seen in the past few years with strong performers and direction but still falls short in terms of screen time and thematic elements. Before this film, I had little knowledge of the origins of the show and its early days. An important piece of nostalgia for millions of households is memorialized here, and the film reminds today’s audience of where one of the most iconic variety shows in America got its start.
Nadia Arain (they/she) is a senior Screen Cultures major who has an Andy Samberg shrine in their bedroom. They can be reached at [email protected].