Chaos in Ensemble: A Saturday Night Plight

“Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night!”

Chaos reigns supreme in the face of making history, or so says Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night through its topsy-turvy reenactment of the 90 minutes before the debut of America’s most famous sketch comedy institution: Saturday Night Live. To ensure it honors the legacy built by Lorne Michaels, Saturday Night dramatizes the creation of the program and “re-introduces” the “Not Ready For Prime Time Players” to moviegoers with little to no memory of the genius of the original cast: Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Laraine Newman, Gilda Radner, Garrett Morris, Jane Curtin, and Chevy Chase. Although it is marketed as a comedy, it is hardly a laugh-out-loud spectacle: it’s similar to the anxiety-inducing cinema affiliated with the Safdie brothers but with a comedic touch.

Reitman, of Juno and Ghostbusters: Afterlife fame, co-wrote the film with Gil Kenan (Monster House, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire), but the praise goes to cinematographer Eric Steelberg for maintaining a vision of unadulterated disorder and sustained dizziness. Saturday Night is a well-edited, well-filmed tour into the madness of television-making, as we see the responsibility of making a revolutionary hit fall into the hands of young, brilliant producer Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle). Right away, the main players are introduced amid an already chaotic night. The massive ensemble brings life to Studio 8H (home of SNL) but the players are hardly the focus of the narrative; instead, the comedians serve as additional agents of chaos, drifting around the set to build up the stress the audience is supposed to feel along with Lorne.

From Belushi (Matt Wood) not signing a contract to Michael O’Donoghue (Tommy Dewey) duking it out with the censor to Aykroyd (Dylan O'Brien) flaunting his beautiful legs, Saturday Night is a standout homage made by fans for fans, but often gets stuck in a zone of incohesion, not unlike the nightmare that was making the hit show happen. Storylines, such as the relationship between Michaels and Rosie Schuster (Rachel Sennott), are merely present for context, and a brief flirtatious moment between Aykroyd and Newman (Emily Fairn) feels undeveloped and leads to nothing special. Similarly, some performers, particularly the women, do not receive the attention they deserve. Schuster is nothing more than a sidekick, while Newman, Radner (Ella Hunt), and Curtin (Kim Matula) are underwritten to give more time and depth to male characters. Similarly, other characters’ screen times are reduced to corny gags and blatant narrative expositions.

Despite how convoluted or underdeveloped the side stories are, there are a multitude of elements that make the film great. Some of Saturday Night’s best moments are when the ensemble recreates (or rehearses) sketches from the first episode and we see the actors shine: the “Weekend Update” segment made great by Chevy Chase (Corey Michael Smith), Belushi’s unparalleled comedic timing, and Andy Kaufman (Nicholas Braun) lip-syncing the theme to an old cartoon nobody remembers. What the film lacks in cohesion, it makes up for its ensemble’s performance. Moreover, LaBelle performs Michaels as a television messiah, a genius who is determined to revolutionize late-night television and comedy altogether, and every scene is equally determined to emphasize the task's difficulty. From the get-go, discouragement and faithlessness drive Michaels to a corner, but instead of succumbing to the doubts of executives and old-timers, Michaels perseveres. In one of Saturday Night’s most important scenes, LaBelle has a monologue explaining how important it is that the show is made because it represents a shift in culture despite the push-back from Saturday Night’s “antagonists” who are stuck in their ways, want to do things their way, and feel that they are in control because they’ve been in the business for longer.

After nearly 1000 episodes, 50 seasons, and loads of cast members that have modernized comedy and brought some of the most iconic pop culture moments to life, Saturday Night Live (and by extension, Saturday Night) is a curious case of “what if.” The film draws on real and dramatized events to show us how the odds favored Lorne Michaels from the first airing on October 11th, 1975. At times dizzying and frenzied, Saturday Night is a crowd-pleaser and it might sway many to revisit the legacy founded by Michaels and Dick Ebersol five decades ago. Whether you are in search of something quick and funny or anxiety-inducing and reckless, Saturday Night offers perhaps the best ensemble cast of the year and more. So, sit back, and laugh away.

If you enjoyed this article, please consider becoming a patron of Hyperreal Film Journal for as low as $3 a month!