Warning: This advance review is from the Toronto International Film Festival and contains spoilers.
If you’re looking for a good time, look no further because New York’s hottest club is a Jason Reitman movie about Lorne Michaels. This film has everything. Dylan O’Brien in short shorts, one of the kids from Stranger Things, a coked-up man in a bumble bee suit, and a prosthetic penis that will give you Whiplash.
Saturday Night channels The Bear’s tenacity with this bulldozing 90-minute biopic. It gives an unhinged white man free rein of the legendary comedy circus as Gabriel LaBelle’s Lorne leads a roaring symphony of stress, chaos, and mad genius through the halls of Studio 8H. The satirical drama mixes fleeting comedic elements into a soundscape of bile masculinity and human error theatrics that will thrill fans of the late-night showcase.
It is most entertaining when flying down the cramped corridors, swivelling the camera to catch glimpses of ghosts from SNL’s past as we hurtle towards showtime. The hectic film puts us smack dab in the middle of a historical television moment that almost didn’t happen.
It has the nail-biting stakes and gumption to keep us at the edge of our seats until those infamous words are spoken. Live from New York, this is indeed Saturday Night.
The cast of Saturday Night is an enigma.
At times, they encapsulate the cheekiness of the craft and other times, they are disastrously cringe. In many ways, this star-studded ensemble mimics the good, the bad, and the ugly of an actual Saturday Night Live cast. By jamming this ensemble with beloved B-list actors, it seeks to duplicate the star-spotting highs we experience watching the show each week. Awaiting our favourite actors to pop up and do their bits is ingrained into the success of SNL, and this film looks to capitalize on that with its castings.
If you’re a viewer who can respect this is a skit within a skit, or you just have no clue who any of these thirty-something actors are, you will have no problem. However, if you are a bit of an IMDB-o-phile, you will have a rough time not being jolted out of the film’s world at every turn. There are hoops you are asking the audience to jump through with these biopics, and even the best actors will struggle to have us suspend belief.
Yet let’s not blame casting; this is no amateur-hour ensemble.
The issue lies with the dialogue. The writing is skilled at navigating the hallways of this fast-paced workplace dramedy, but its uneven distribution of the spotlight leaves some of these key players feeling one-dimensional. The script could have given them more to work with individually to flesh out these personas or drove home the satire of this being a sketch within the sketch show.
This ensemble does its best to deliver on a heavy ask. But like anything involving theatre kids, a small part of you is irritated with them, and you can’t quite put your finger on why.
The film has stars in its eyes for Lorne and Chevy Chase, and it is not difficult to see why.
Saturday Night plays Lorne Michaels off as a flippant innovator whose creative process is about as stable as John Belushi in a bee costume. It makes for excellent entertainment as he attempts to corral his prime-time players before the clock strikes 11:30pm. However, Cory Michael Smith’s portrayal of Chevy Chase is a stand-out. It is so spot-on at times that you cannot help but worry that the ghost of Clark Griswold is speaking directly through him.
While it makes sense to have Lorne as our tour guide, the choice to prop Chevy up on the same pedestal undercuts the ensemble. Lorne is arguably more fascinating when playing off his ex-wife and head writer of Saturday Night Live, Rosie Schuster. Not only is Rachel Sennott a scene stealer, but it also makes sense to frame their partnership as the unofficial centrepiece.
Ultimately, ignoring so many other historical trailblazers is a misstep in creating a cohesive ensemble film. Nonetheless, Smith doesn’t squander those extra minutes of screen time, and we come away with an appreciation for his arc.
Chevy spends much of the movie boasting to colleagues about the shoulder tap he receives from the NBC executives. He knows his career is about to blow up, just not on the medicorcre sound stages of Studio 8H with this motley crew. The film wisely lets Chevy’s arrogance go unchecked. Until Lorne taps Chevy on the shoulder and asks him to lead the Weekend Update. It is a penny in the cup for this bloated biopic, but it speaks volumes for Lorne’s development as he lets go of his dreams to be in front of the camera. It also pulls the rug out from under Chevy by revealing his claim to fame was starring him in the face this entire time.
It is an irony so sweet it could be the film’s best joke.
Sadly, the film fails Dylan O’Brien’s portrayal of Aykroyd by minimizing his dorky comedic persona to the same tired accent bit. However, O’Brien doesn’t let that stop him from delivering a profound insight into this comedian on that historic night.
You see, SNL did something groundbreaking in its first season. It gave women equal opportunities to be as funny as their male counterparts and poke fun at equality issues. Saturday Night briefly but brilliantly shockcases this fact with a reenactment of the “Hard Hats” sketch.
The Aykroyd we get to know in this film loves to touch his coworkers without consent. He flings women around like rag dolls, and he makes sexual remarks about his castmates. However, when asked to put on booty shorts and be the butt of the joke as his female costars pretend to catcall him, Aykroyd is not having it. Between the film’s clever tongue-in-cheek rendering of in-person accounts from the set and O’Brien’s ability to jump on this moment of substance and deliver a performance so uncomfortably counter to what we see of his character until this point, it is a valuable behind-the-scenes look.
The trailer plays O’Brien’s jean short moment for laughs to get butts in seats, but the reality of the scene is much more objective. O’Brien plays an Aykroyd forced to taste his own medicine with squirming cowardice and pathetic irritability that suggest this Chevy-centric script failed to give the Teen Wolf actor’s portrayal the depth it needed to succeed.
The same can be said for the women of SNL. While the original show gave a platform to female comedians when many wouldn’t, Saturday Night is not so generous with screen time.
Jane Curtin (Kim Matula), Gilda Radner (Ella Hunt), and Laraine Newman (Emily Fairn) were pillars of the show’s success. However, the biopic often reduces them to a fluttering flock of seagulls running from scene to scene in white togas. Like Aykroyd, they get one scene to showcase their character, which hardly translates their significance.
Even as a novist SNL watcher, I know Jane went on to be the successor to Chevy and the first woman to host Weekend Update. The film could have aided in teasing Jane’s succession as it toyed with his rise to fame. Instead, she and the rest of this historical group of female comedians are reduced to background actors as Chevy is pushed to the forefront of the story.
It’s an unbalanced ensemble choice that should not entirely sit right with the audience.
That said, I love the sincerity between Radner and Belushi’s fictional counterparts. Gilda tells a lucid John that one day they will walk by the Rockafeller skating rink with their kids on their shoulders, thinking of this night. It is a grim premonition rather than an accurate eye-witness account. Nonetheless, the subtle nod to the fallen comedians is bitter sweet.
Saturday Night may not showcase its talent equally. However, some of its most profound work is in the unsaid.
Saturday Night is a quirky trailblazer, uncovering comedy gold and disjointed dysfunction in its crowded hallways. While it is easy to dissect the movie’s flaws after the fact, you will have a blast navigating the studio’s many rooms and departments in the heat of the moment. I almost wish this concept could be adapted into a mini-series to explore more behind-the-scenes tidbits about the show from its early days.
Most impressively, Saturday Night sticks closely to the truth, churning first-person accounts from that night into an entertaining story of mostly factual underdogs. It is an excellent introduction to the original cast for SNL novices who want to brush up on the show’s history.
And the finale nails the film’s deeper themes, driving home the importance of the cast and crew working together to complete this impossible task. As the actors get down on their knees to help the set workers place the final bricks on the stage, everything comes together cohesively enough to satisfy the audience.
Saturday Night captures the madness behind the magic but never quite grasps the comedic star-power of its namesake.
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Saturday Night premieres exclusively in theatres on October 11.
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