Review: Saturday Night

Image courtesy of Columbia Pictures.

Jason Reitman's "Saturday Night" is nothing less than what it appears to be - a play-by-play of the hours and minutes leading up to one of the most momentous nights in comedy TV history. Filmed in the style of Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu's "Birdman," the picture follows a number of personalities as they navigate the sets of NBC just before the show was set to go on the air in 1975.

Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle), the show's creator, is our main window into the proceedings as he attempts to get one of his stars, John Belushi (Matt Wood), to sign his contract as well as nail down a final script - a board is covered with numerous pieces of paper with skit titles, clearly too many to squeeze into 90 minutes of television - and hob knob with skittish producers (Willem Dafoe is NBC big wig David Tebet while Cooper Hoffman is producer Dick Ebersol, who takes a lot of abuse from pretty much everyone).

The cast is massive. There's a cocky Chevy Chase (Cory Michael Smith), a fast-talking Dan Aykroyd (Dylan O'Brien), affable Gilda Radner (Ella Hunt), Laraine Newman (Emily Fairn), Jane Curtin (Kim Matula), and Garrett Morris (Lamorne Morris), who fears he is the cast's token Black cast member. There's also George Carlin (Matthew Rhys), future Letterman band leader Paul Schaffer (Paul Rust), Billy Crystal (Nicholas Podany), Nicholas Braun pulling double duty as the shy Jim Henson and eccentric Andy Kaufman, and even an appearance by Mr. Television himself, Milton Berle (J.K. Simmons).

The list goes on and on. Surprisingly, a number of the figures get their own memorable moments - Henson pleads gently over and over again with Michaels for a script for his Muppets bit, Carlin gets to rant and rave, Morris connects with musical guest Billy Preston and later with Curtin when he ponders what exactly he's doing there, Kaufman does his Mighty Mouse routine, Belushi goes ice skating, and Chase has a confrontation with Berle that he was not likely expecting.

And yet, the film feels more like a series of enjoyable moments, rather than any sort of deep dive into the relevance that "Saturday Night Live" represents for American pop culture. So while "Saturday Night" - the film's title refers to the show's original name, which later added a third word - isn't anything more than it purports to be, well, that's perfectly fine. It's an amusing behind-the-scenes look at what allegedly took place while the show's cast and crew struggled to get it on the air.

Considering that next year is the 50th anniversary of that evening, it should come as no surprise that Reitman's film exists. It's an enjoyable homage to the show's lasting legacy and a number of the cast members nail their impersonations. It's not likely to give anyone new insights into the show, but instead it celebrates the quirky collaborative spirit that has allowed it to last this long.