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One of the longest-running TV shows of all time, Saturday Night Live has long since established itself as one of the icons of network television. From A-list actors like Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep and George Clooney to chart-topping musical acts like Madonna, Taylor Swift and the Rolling Stones, virtually anyone who's anyone has either hosted or performed on SNL. Like any top-tier brand, however, things weren't always as golden for the late-night institution. And in Saturday Night, writer-director Jason Reitman and co-writer Gil Kenan tell the story of the show's humble beginnings, in this ensemble comedy about the backstage drama surrounding the taping of SNL's inaugural episode. Unfolding almost in real-time, the film follows a stressed-out Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle), as the 30-year-old creator of Saturday Night Live battles against technical difficulties, an unruly cast and an uncooperative crew to try and bring the show's very first episode to television screens across America. The date is October 11th, 1975, and with 90 minutes to air, the mood inside Rockefeller Plaza's Studio 8H is anything but relaxed. Whether it's the lighting setup falling on and almost killing the actors, head writer Michael O'Donoghue's (Tommy Dewey) frustration with the pious network censor (Catherine Curtin), or Lorne's own inability to figure out which sketches to cut in order to pare down the episode's overly long running time, the list of things going awry continues to grow longer as the time to air grows shorter. And with network executive David Tebet (Willem Dafoe) breathing down both Lorne and SNL co-creator Dick Ebersol's (Cooper Hoffman) necks, there's no guarantee that NBC will allow them to go live, even if they do manage to get their incredibly disorganized act together. Bolstered by an electric ensemble cast that includes Dylan O'Brien as Dan Aykroyd, Ella Hunt as Gilda Radner, Lamorne Morris as Garrett Morris, Emily Fairn as Laraine Newman, Matt Wood as John Belushi, Kim Matula as Jane Curtin, Nicholas Braun as both Andy Kaufman and Jim Henson, Cory Michael Smith as Chevy Chase, and Rachel Sennott as Lorne's then-wife, Rosie Shuster, the result grabs viewers from the get-go and never lets up. A kinetic, once-in-a-decade cinematic experience, Saturday Night will no doubt leave viewers cheering. The only downside is that, unlike the real show, there's no next week's episode to look forward to. |
Saturday Night screens under the Special Presentations programme at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. Its runtime is 1 hr. 49 min.
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