Reviews

Saturday Night

Verdict: Saturday Night is a chaotic, stressful watch that will only be appreciated by SNL fans

  • Gabriel LaBelle, Rachel Sennott, Cory Michael Smith, Ella Hunt, Dylan O'Brien, Lamorne Morris
  • January 25th 2025
  • 109
  • Jason Reitman

Jason Reitman’s ensemble depicts the behind-the-scenes chaos leading up to the first-ever episode of Saturday Night Live.

The U.S. sketch show Saturday Night Live celebrates its 50th anniversary later this year so it’s the perfect time to take a look back at the making of the first-ever episode with the comedy Saturday Night.

Jason Reitman’s ensemble comedy begins at 10pm on 11 October 1975 and charts the 90 minutes leading up to the premiere episode of Saturday Night Live at 11.30pm.

Set in and around its New York studio, Saturday Night essentially follows creator and producer Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle) as he walks around trying to fix problems – and there are so many problems.

To name a few, an unsatisfied John Belushi (Matt Wood) disappears, there are too many sketches and performances for the running time, the lightning director furiously quits, the censor wants to cut the rude jokes and host George Carlin (Matthew Rhys) isn’t happy.

If that wasn’t enough, Michaels also has the threat of NBC executives (represented by Willem Dafoe) potentially refusing to air the live broadcast if they don’t feel confident in it. So he has 90 minutes to tame the chaos and put a show together.

This film involves a lot of characters, from SNL cast members – including Chevy Chase (Corey Michael Smith), Dan Aykroyd (Dylan O’Brien) and Gilda Radner (Ella Hunt) – to writers, musicians, backstage crew, studio crew and network representatives.

As a result, there are many moving parts and micro storylines going on. These end up feeling almost like little sketches in themselves as there is no time to make them fully realised stories.

Michaels is the focus and everyone else simply pops up here and there.

LaBelle, who experienced a career breakthrough with Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans, capably carries this film on his shoulders.

He is the only one you become invested in as he navigates his way through the mayhem and connects the micro stories together.

Michaels is woefully unprepared, flying by the seat of his pants and making very last-minute changes. At the same time, he is being pulled in every direction as the problems keep piling on top of each other.

Despite this, he manages to keep a cool head and have unwavering confidence in the success of his show.

Diehard fans of SNL will probably really enjoy this film, but it’s hard to see its appeal for anyone else. Most of the characters are annoying, it’s not particularly funny and it’s quite a stressful watch.

With Saturday Night, Reitman brilliantly creates a frenetic, rowdy atmosphere but there’s too much happening all the time to really latch on to anything.

In cinemas from Friday 31st January

By Hannah Wales

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