Whenever a film based on a true story gets made, the filmmaker has to make a decision about how they want to balance presenting historical accuracy versus capturing the vibe of the moment. And it’s clear from the very beginning of Saturday Night that co-writers Jason Reitman (who also directed) and Gil Kenan (who wrote the last two Ghostbusters movies) were going for the vibe, while peppering in what really happened on the night the first episode of Saturday Night Live aired, as well as other things that happened during that historic first season. Reitman has opted for what elements are the most entertaining rather than worry too much about the reality of the day in question, and the result is a mixed bag of funny and unbelievable.
The film is set during the 90 minutes leading up to the first broadcast of SNL on October 11, 1975, and as one might expect, things are a bit chaotic. Showrunner/producer Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle) and his creative partner/wife Rosie Shuster (an inspired performance by Rachel Sennott) are trying to pull together a finished script and show rundown, even though the dress rehearsal lasted three hours, meaning cutting skits will be key.
And as the night goes on, certain things work themselves out while other things get more complicated. Many of the unknown cast members are questioning why they are even there; the writers are fighting with the in-house standards and practices censor; and NBC executives (led by Willem Dafoe’s snaky David Tebet, the network’s vice president of talent relations) have no faith the show will even make it to air, let alone be any good—they have a recent rerun of Johnny Carson’s The Tonight Show at the ready.
Reitman’s version of chaos feels manufactured, but every couple of scenes, something comes together and reveals the magic that was the original cast and writers gelling in such a way that iconic, counter-culture television was birthed. Some of the best performances are done by Dylan O’Brien, whose Dan Aykroyd is so spot-on, it’s scary; Cory Michael Smith as a smarmy Chevy Chase, capturing his early-days’ blend of confidence and nerves beautifully; and Ella Hunt as Gilda Radner simply moving through each moment as a supportive, calming force. I especially loved Lamorne Morris as Garrett Morris (no relation), the Juilliard-trained actor with no real comedic background who wanted desperately to not just be the token Black guy on an especially white show. But Lorne makes it clear that each of the cast members were there for a reason; he just didn’t always make it clear what that reason was, leaving his actors the ability to carve out a place in the ensemble.
I was also impressed with Tommy Dewey as head writer Michael O’Donoghue, a rebel looking for something to rebel against. On this particular day, he pushed especially hard against being forced to find a place in the show for Jim Henson (Nicholas Braun, who also plays comedian Andy Kaufman in the place) and his Muppets. To be fair, Henson and SNL were a terrible combination, and the portrayal of Henson here probably isn’t fair or accurate, but the way the SNL staff seem to unify against the puppeteer is amusing.
The film follows various story threads regarding the musicians who played that night (Jon Batiste’s Billy Preston and Janis Ian), stand-up comics (Billy Crystal, Valri Bromfield) who were meant to do short sets, the aforementioned Kaufman, and writing team Al Franken and Tom Davis trying to get a blood-squirting machine working for a sketch they’ve come up with. But the bigger-picture story about simply getting the show on the air dominates Saturday Night, as corporate lackey Dick Ebersole (Cooper Hoffman) is constantly needling Michaels to get the show in shape and please the network. There are also foolish side trips involving visiting dignitary Milton Berle (J.K. Simmons) and his giant penis, the unwillingness of host George Carlin (Matthew Rhys) to appear in sketches (probably wisely), and Michaels leaving the building to look for John Belushi (Matt Wood) and finding new writer Alan Zweibel (Josh Brener).
Some of it works, some of it doesn’t; some of it embraces familiar SNL moments and elements (even if they didn’t actually happen on Day 1), and some pieces give us a true sense of the tension and insanity of such a radical shift in the entertainment world. If you’re a die-hard SNL enthusiast, your measure for what the film accomplishes may be skewed, but I think the performances are strong enough to make this a reasonably enjoyable experience throughout, despite a few cringe-worthy inclusions.
Saturday Night is now in theaters.
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