Saturday Night – Film Review
Reviewed by Damien Straker on the 26th of October 2024
Sony presents a film by Jason Reitman
Written by Gil Kenan and Jason Reitman
Produced by Jason Blumenfeld, Peter Rice, Jason Reitman, and Gil Kenan
Starring Gabriel LaBelle, Rachel Sennott, Cory Michael Smith, Ella Hunt, Dylan O’Brien, Emily Fairn, Matt Wood, Lamorne Morris, Kim Matula, Finn Wolfhard, Nicholas Braun, Cooper Hoffman, Andrew Barth Feldman, Kaia Gerber, Tommy Dewey, Willem Dafoe, Matthew Rhys,
and J. K. Simmons
Cinematography Eric Steelberg
Edited by Nathan Orloff and Shane Reid
Music by Jon Batiste
Rating: MA15+
Running Time: 109 minutes
Release Date: the 31st of October 2024
What happened to Canadian filmmaker Jason Reitman? The son of director Ivan Reitman started his career so promisingly with sharply observed political satires of modern American culture. His first four movies, Thank You for Smoking (2005), Juno (2007), Up in the Air (2009), and Young Adult (2011), were topical and hilarious. They also centred themselves around a memorable lead character. Reitman has dabbled unsuccessfully with sentimentality (Labour Day, 2013). He has also tried telling multiplot films with Men, Women, and Children (2014), The Front Runner (2018), and now Saturday Night (2024). The form is not working for him. He would be well advised to reflect on what succeeded earlier in his career. It is a combination of reclaiming that sarcastic, satirical tone and choosing one strong perspective. Saturday Night does not do anything remarkable enough to resolve these issues. It also fails to dispel the feeling that one of the most promising directors of his generation has lost his way.
The film itself is focused on the creative scene. Its 1975 and a nervous showrunner, Lorne Michaels (The Fabelmans’ Gabriel LaBelle), is dashing around backstage as he prepares to launch the first ever episode of the comedy show Saturday Night Live. The entirety of the film is Lorne attempting to pull his promising young actors together. John Belushi (Matt Wood) is temperamental and unreliable. Billy Crystal (Nicholas Podany) is trying to squeeze his act into a narrow timeslot. Dan Aykroyd (Dylan O’Brien) and Chevy Chase (Cory Michael Smith) both have massive egos and throw their weight around. A censor Joan Carbunkle (Catherine Curtin) is strongarming the writers into removing crude parts of the show. Lorne finds himself removed from his wife, Rosie Shuster (Rachel Sennott, underused). She quips that she used to be the wife now she’s just the writer. His biggest concern though is the pressure he feels from the corporate suits. One of the big network executives, David Tebet (Willem Dafoe), has huge expectations. The pressure starts taking its toll on Lorne’s friendship with Dick Ebersol (Cooper Hoffman). George Carlin (Matthew Rhys), Gilda Radner (Ella Hunt), Garrett Morris (Lamorne Morris), along with Andy Kaufman and Jim Henson (both played by Nicholas Braun), also float around the backrooms as people scrambled to air the program.
The biggest shortcoming of Saturday Night is plainly that it is just not that funny. Maybe its because its hard turning real life events into a feature film. It is even harder making something funny that is already humorous, in this case Saturday Night Live itself. It might just be a case where the dramatic situation is not clever enough. The premise plays closer in tone and action to a tension-filled thriller. Scene after scene, followed by more scenes and scenes after that, involve Lorne scrambling through the backrooms as his crew rushes chaotically between malfunctions. A huge light apparatus comes crashing down. It narrowly misses the actors and starts a small fire. That moment is tense. Yet it reminds us of how much more accomplished this ‘fly-on-the-wall’ perspective was achieved in Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu’s film Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014). Iñárritu’s film succeeded as an energetic comedy. It did not stretch its talented cast too thin. Saturday Night cuts between so many different people, most of whom are not that fun to be around. Unlike Birdman and its skilful artistic flair, this film settles for chaotic repetition and an overabundance of characters.
It is not as though there is a complete lack of character development. The question is whether you believe airing this comedy show was an immediate catalyst for personal change. To be fair, the film’s only two interesting scenes reflect this idea. One is where Dan Ackroyd practices a gender-swapped skit. Dressed in lowcut shorts, he is ogled by women pretending to be horny construction workers. With everyone laughing at him, you can see how uncomfortable he is acting out the scene. Elsewhere, Chevy Chase is earmarked by management as a future star but soon eats humble pie. He notices his girlfriend is being hit on by a big old-time star named Milton Berle (J. K. Simmons). In a verbal duel, the two men exchange comic insults until Milton verbally shoots him down. He then shocks everyone by taking out his penis. These two scenes work well enough in isolation. Thematically, it adds up to little. This is at best sitcom growth. Television will humble people, deflate massive egos, restore friendships, and even heal broken marriages! That’s right, apparently Saturday Night Live was all we needed to start singing kumbaya. Come back, Charlize Theron. If this sounds appealing, you won’t mind that the film abruptly ends before making anything meaningful out of this fluff and its unlikeable characters.
There are a handful of solid impersonations here but even that hasn’t been enough for American audiences. The film tanked at the box office with a modest budget. Simply put, it is just not that funny and it doesn’t build enough suspense either. You don’t feel the tension because there is never any doubt that the show will air. But wait, will the trainwreck John Belushi open the stage door in time? Yawn. What a major pitfall since Saturday Night repeatedly tells us how chaotic, disastrous, and unlikely this show was until the last moment. The idea about promising young actors pulling themselves together would make more sense if we really cared about these difficult people. It is bizarre that the film forgoes one of its own rising stars. Rachel Sennott’s comedic talents are completely ignored. Give the poor woman some funny lines or some room to improvise. She’s funnier than this boring claptrap. If he wants a lesson in humble pie, Reitman should rewatch his early works and realise what made them soar. A conversation with screenwriter Diablo Cody and Rachel Sennott might also give him some much-needed perspective. If this film tells us anything, its that you can’t solve it all on your own.
Summary: Simply put, Saturday Night is just not that funny and it doesn’t build enough suspense either.
2
Forgettable
About the Author
Damien Straker is a freelance writer and film critic. He studied at the University of Sydney and graduated with an Arts Honours degree in Film Studies. He is a pop culture aficionado and enjoys talking about all films, 90s TV shows, ninjas and watching Rugby League. His favourite film directors are Alfonso Cuarón, Clint Eastwood and Alexander Payne.
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