“The writers are stoned. The set is on fire. The sound system is f***ed,” are just some of the phrases used on the poster for Saturday Night, Jason Reitman’s raucous new comedy that fictionalizes the debut broadcast of long-running sketch show SNL back in 1975. It’s hardly surprising, then, that the movie is wall-to-wall chaos as Gabriel LaBelle’s producer Lorne Michaels navigates numerous disasters in the 90 minutes before they go live. If it starts badly, NBC’ll pull the plug and fill the gap with a re-run of The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson…
There’s no question that all the things going wrong on set are potentially career-ruining; a schedule that runs almost twice the length of their allocated time on-air, network executives nagging temperamental actors to sign contracts, lights crashing down in the middle of a dress rehearsal. But thanks to a plethora of great gags and charismatic performances from the likes of J. K. Simmons, Cory Michael Smith (a real standout as charming but jerkish Chevy Chase), and Rachel Sennott, it all feels surprisingly low-stakes. I mean, after all, we know everything’s going to turn out alright. The movie is, in part, a celebration of Saturday Night Live’s 50th anniversary. In spite of all that, though, it genuinely made me feel stressed and, admittedly, my palms a bit sweaty. Its balance of tones is perfect, fondly reminding me of Shiva Baby, Fawlty Towers, and other movies and TV shows that play with what it means to be “funny”.
“Humor has social and physical benefits: laughter releases neurotransmitters responsible for your happiness, such as dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphins,” media psychologist Dr. Pamela Rutledge explained to CBC back in 2020, when asked why we often turn to comedy movies to cheer us up. “The release of these chemicals in response to humor decreases stress, diminishes pain and in the process strengthens the immune system.” I can’t help but admire filmmakers who aren’t afraid to make audiences squirm in their seats while they’re chuckling – paradoxically challenging what we’ve come to expect a comedy to do.
Charm offensive
Uncontrollable bedlam makes total sense in a movie about live broadcasting, which is obviously more prone to mistakes than a show that smooths everything out in the edit. While I’ve admittedly not watched SNL properly in a good few years, I was obsessed with it during my time at university, and the acts I remembered most fondly tended to be the ones where someone messed up or one of the actors corpsed. “The show doesn’t go on because it’s ready; it goes on because it’s 11:30,” Michaels tells his colleague during one tension-filled scene. It felt like a love letter to those unpredictable, very real moments that happen on the show almost every week.
Beyond that, it feels fitting that Saturday Night isn’t your typical feel-good flick, given the fates of some of its original regulars and the show’s history. In its first-ever episode, the line-up of comedians consisted of Chevy Chase, as mentioned above, Dan Ackroyd, Garrett Morris (a Julliard-trained thespian who, in the film, has no idea why he’s been drafted into such a circus), Laraine Newman, Jane Curtin, Gilda Radner, John Belushi, and guest Andy Kaufman. Since appearing on Community, Chase has fallen from Hollywood grace following accusations of on-set misconduct. Die-hard SNL fans might giggle, then, at the moment a wide-eyed Chase is told that he has what it takes to be the new Johnny Carson, knowing that when the actor actually got his own talk show in 1993, it was canceled after just six weeks. “He was very nervous. It was uncomfortable and embarrassing to watch it,” Fox Broadcasting chairwoman Lucie Salhany said in a damning statement at the time.
Separately, Kaufman, Radner, and Belushi died at 35, 42, and 33, from lung cancer, ovarian cancer, and a heroin overdose, respectively. The movie darkly nods to some of this, too, especially through Matt Wood’s uncanny take on the Blues Brothers star, the sullen, drug-riddled MVP on set – everyone tiptoeing around him, even as they ask him to don a bee costume for one particular scene or shave off his trademark beard.
Obviously, it’s not all doom and gloom. Succession’s Nicholas Braun hilariously plays two characters – Kaufman and Jim Henson – inexplicably, which I can only assume is a nod to how the cast members often do impressions and wear many hats during each episode of SNL. It’s well-known, too, that the real-life actors and writers meticulously prepare for the weekend show Tuesday through Friday. By positioning the movie just an hour-and-a-half before the cameras start rolling, though, Reitman and co-scribe Gil Kenan distill in it a kinetic energy – and it vibrates off the screen.
The word ‘ensemble’ goes hand-in-hand with Saturday Night Live, but the pair cleverly anchor LaBelle’s Michaels to ensure it has an emotional undercurrent, too, as he flits around the halls of 30 Rockefeller Plaza interacting with a Rolodex of kooky characters: the stoner composers, gore-obsessed prop guys, and Willem Dafoe’s tinted glasses-wearing NBC boss, to name a few. All of them spouting the kind of zippy dialogue Aaron Sorkin would be proud of. Michaels doesn’t just wrestle with practical problems but his wavering self-confidence (“Did it ever occur to you why they’d even let a bunch of twenty-somethings do this? The network wants this to fail. Are you really that arrogant?” Cooper Hoffman’s Dick Ebersol shouts) and his rocky relationship with his estranged writer wife Rosie (Sennott), who can’t decide whether she wants to be credited as ‘Michaels’ or ‘Shuster’.
Feeling skit-tish
While it’s only now releasing in cinemas in the UK, Saturday Night has been out across the pond since September 2024 and didn’t even manage to surpass $10 million at the box office (bad news, considering it’s said to have cost $25-30m) before being dropped on Netflix. But it’d be a real shame if those low figures were regarded as an indicator of its quality. It’s no secret that SNL isn’t as popular as it once was, with no star performers such as Eddie Murphy, Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, Kristen Wiig, or Kate McKinnon involved anymore to encourage people to tune in every week – and news becoming so wild, it’s almost impossible to satirize – which may be a reason as to why people in the US haven’t turned out for it.
Instead of fussing about the now, however, a laser-focused Reitman shrewdly honors the humble roots of this zeitgeisty institution of American TV, before all those involved even knew the future success story they had on their hands. I think it might be time to dig out my Weekend Update T-shirt from the attic.
Saturday Night is out in UK cinemas now. For more, check out our picks of the best comedy movies for some viewing inspiration.