Saturday Night, the latest film from director Jason Reitman, begins with quite possibly the most famous quote ever made by Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels: “The show doesn’t go on because it’s ready; it goes on because it’s 11:30.” It’s this mantra that has led SNL through fifty years of episodes, and considering an entire show is put together in less than a week, it’s remarkable any episode ever made it to air. Sometimes, the show is a showcase for some of the best and brightest in the comedy world, filled with jokes and political commentary that become iconic and influential; other times, it’s just what could be scrambled together in a week (to those “Saturday Night Live isn’t relevant/funny anymore” commenters, sorry, the show has always been this level of a mixed bag. Yes, even when you grew up with it).

In Saturday Night, Reitman, who also co-wrote with his Ghostbusters collaborator, Gil Kenan, does his best to not make this an ensemble of young actors doing impressions of comedy greats, nor is he trying to create an entirely historically accurate recreation of what actually happened in the 90 minutes leading up to the first SNL episode. Instead, Reitman is more interested in capturing the spirit of getting ready for a show as frantic as SNL, a ticking time bomb that will go off at 11:30 P.M., which can seem more like herding cats than putting on a comedy show, and how it’s a minor miracle that this show has been able to do this for nearly half a century.

What Is ‘Saturday Night’ About?

Gabriel LaBelle (The Fabelmans) stars as the young Lorne Michaels, who is trying to prove himself to NBC that his idea of a live comedy show with musical guests, movies, Muppets, and everything but the kitchen sink is a good idea. His producer, Dick Ebersol (Cooper Hoffman), is trying to make things as smooth as possible, while also trying to do what’s best for the studio. But with 90 minutes to air, it seems as though there’s no chance that Saturday Night will hit the air to prove itself. Network executives are breathing down Michaels’ throat, John Belushi (Matt Wood) still hasn’t signed his contract, there’s no one to do the lighting, bricks are still being laid, and Michaels hasn’t even decided how to pare down the show to an hour-and-a-half. With so much still up in the air and nothing seemingly going right, it looks as though Michaels’ brainchild might not manage to make it to air, regardless of whether it’s 11:30 or not.

‘Saturday Night’ Is More Than Just a String of Impressions
Image via Sony Pictures

Right out the gate, as the opening credits roll, Saturday Night introduces the audience to who is playing who in this recreation. Instead of stopping the film dead in its tracks whenever we need to be introduced to an actor playing a comedian we know, this intro handles that simply and effectively. The casting of the show’s original crew is impeccable, but is also never attempting to be a direct take of the show’s first cast. For example, Dylan O’Brien as Dan Aykroyd seems like such an odd choice, but O’Brien matches the mannerisms as much as he needs to, without going into an impression. Wood, Lamorne Morris (Garrett Morris), and Cory Michael Smith (Chevy Chase) are all matching the spirit of these actors, but never diving too deep into trying to recreate them directly. Saturday Night also makes the show’s three female cast members, Gilda Radner (Ella Hunt), Jane Curtin (Kim Matula), and Laraine Newman (Emily Fairn) feel like a unified trio, trying to make their name in a show that’s very clearly a boy’s club. Balancing out Michaels’ manic energy is Rosie Shuster (Rachel Sennott), Michaels’ wife from whom he’s separated, which shows that despite Michaels getting the credit, Shuster was an important yin to his yang, without which the show probably would’ve never made it to air.

Saturday Night is crammed with an absurd ensemble, from Tommy Dewey’s Michael O’Donogue, whose dark, brash sense of humor is both a gift and a curse, Matthew Rhys as the show’s first host, George Carlin, Nicholas Braun pulling double duty as Jim Henson and Andy Kaufman, J.K. Simmons as friggin’ Milton Berle, and No Hard Feelings’ Andrew Barth Feldman as the only person who might be in over their head more than Michaels. Each character here only gets a few minutes of screen time, but each is following their own specific storyline along the fringes of Michaels’ story. While it would be great to potentially spend more time with each of these great characters, Saturday Night, much like SNL, is about the ensemble rather than the individual, and Reitman plays to that, making the amount of characters who Michaels’ needs to deal with feel overwhelming and impossible to manage.

‘Saturday Night’ Is More a Celebration Than a Factual Recreation – And That’s a Good Thing
Image via Sony Pictures

Even though Reitman and Kenan attempt to base each of these character’s stories in fact and what they were doing on the night of this first episode, it also, rightfully, never feels like it’s attempting to be a direct recreation of everything that happened leading up to this premiere. This is a clear exaggeration of what was likely one of the most intense shows of Michaels’ career, and it’s easy to see how all of these events probably happened in the build-up to this show, just probably not in the 90 minutes beforehand. There are moments that are clearly added to make more of a strong narrative structure, like Michaels having to explain what the hell is show is to network executive David Tebet (Willem Dafoe) right before air, or having Michaels undergo an epiphany as he watches Belushi ice skate in a bee costume outside Rockefeller Center. These moments don’t quite work because they do feel false in the larger scheme of this bonkers production, a necessary evil in order to give this story a tighter structure than it would have without.

Saturday Nightis also the best film from Reitman since his work with Diablo Cody in 2018’s Tully and 2011’s Young Adult. Reitman knows how to build the tension of this situation, a never-ending string of problems that need to be solved and quickly. Also perfectly adding to this sense is Jon Batiste’s score, which is centered around a steady drum beat that builds and smashes to pull at your nerves in effective ways, à la Birdman. Reitman has spoken at length about his love of Saturday Night Live, and even working as a writer on the show for a week, and you can feel that love emanating from his camera, as he maneuvers around this recreation of Studio 8H, almost as though he’s a documentarian there to capture this groundbreaking episode of television. He’s swinging the camera around, making long takes, rapidly cutting between moments, and generally having a blast behind the camera in a way that we haven’t seen from him since probably Juno.

However, Reitman and Kenan’s script mostly asks its audience to have as much awareness about Saturday Night Live and its cast as they do, and that could likely be a bit overwhelming for the uninitiated. Saturday Night asks its audience to know details like how the cast used to advertise Polaroid camera during the show, Belushi’s history with dressing up as a bee on the show, and the appearance of Alan Zweibel (Josh Brener) will feel like an “oh shit!” moment to fans, and mean absolutely nothing to others. Reitman and Kenan are clearly super fans of SNL, and its history, and because of that, the script often doesn’t take into account that its audience probably won’t know as much about this show as they do.

But beyond that, Saturday Night is an exciting, enthralling, and often hilarious celebration of Saturday Night Live with a tremendous cast that shows the unbelievable amount of work that goes into putting this show on. There is a clear love for the legacy and history of SNL and its importance in comedy and television, and Reitman captures that wonderfully here. By looking back at this iconic episode, Reitman has made one of his best films in years.

Saturday Night screened at the Toronto International Film Festival. It comes to select theaters in the U.S. on September 27 before expanding. Click below for showtimes near you.

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