Saturday night, October 11th, 1975, 30 Rock, Studio 8H; in just 90 minutes a television revolution will begin, helmed by young executive Lorne Michaels, who in that time frame will do whatever he can so that the show makes it to air. Director Jason Reitman sets this as the premise for Saturday Night, a comedy told mostly in real time during the 90 minutes leading up to the first ever episode of Saturday Night Live. The film follows Lorne Michaels as his production starts to fall apart before his very eyes; unhinged cast members, rebelling crew, hard-headed writers and studio heads threatening to pull the plug at any moment. 

 

Breakout from The Fabelmans, Gabriel LaBelle, portrays Michaels overseeing the hour and a half leading up to the live studio recording. LaBelle plays Michaels with excellent subdued anxiety as he’s a man who is about to see his dream come to life, but it may also fall apart at any moment. So, nearly every choice is to uphold the integrity of the show, Saturday Night. You have a whole ensemble here as the original cast of the show too, Corey Michael Smith as Chevy Chase, Dylan O’ Brien as Dan Aykroyd, Nicholas Braun as Jim Henson (AND Andy Kaufman), Ella Hunt as Gilda Radner, and that’s not even half the list. We get more into the show business side of Lorne’s journey whenever he shares scenes with producer Dick Ebersol, played by Cooper Hoffman.

 

The height of the film comes from the lead performance of LaBelle, and the few scenes Hoffman shares with him. Together these two reveal the stress of creativity, and how some of the integrity of art is held up by sticks; however through the chaos the two navigate ways to lay the groundwork for something new and hold up the integrity of their art with something strong. The cast playing the original SNL ensemble, however, is hit and miss. At times it feels like glorified impersonations and none of these characters ever really feel like they’re presenting any challenges to the stakes Lorne Michaels is facing through the film. Smith and O’Brien really shine as Chase and Aykroyd, but their explorations feel disappointingly surface level and safe. 

 

While this does present itself as a fun and stressful time, it comes across as weirdly bare-bones for such an elaborate and snappy structure. There isn’t much meditation on what characters are thinking or feeling, or really how other personal stakes conflict with each other. The one big stake is that SNL may not make it to air. There’s no challenging character study of Michaels, his cast, or his confidants, but the film is more focused on showing how the creative drive of young artists went to create one of the biggest modern staples of American television. Though all-in-all pretty satisfying, the film’s impact feels almost passive once it reaches its final moments, and all that's left is a feeling that this could definitely have been a lot more thorough and thoughtful.