The Brilliantly Constructed Chaos Of “Saturday Night”

Courtesy of Sony Pictures Entertainment.

Jason Reitman has orchestrated a thing of wonder to behold. For years, the early days of Saturday Night Live - then called NBC’s Saturday Night - has become a thing of lore. The idea is this group of baby boomers all came together to completely deconstruct what television has become, and create something that was just for them. It’s a story for anyone that ever felt to themselves that they had something different to offer that they weren’t seeing. It’s that kind of energy that is the engine that fuels the new film, Saturday Night.

Reitman is essentially extended family to the legendary show. That’s because his dad Ivan Reitman - while not explicitly involved in the show - was certainly circulating around its orbit, having worked with a number of the show’s staff before. So Reitman had grown up with a keen awareness of the show and its important legacy. Which is perhaps how he gained the blessing of Lorne Michaels - who has had no direct involvement and reportedly won’t see the film - to go off and make the film.

What Reitman did is take us on a wild roller coaster charting the 90 minutes leading up to Saturday Night Live’s debut episode. Every tiny detail is meticulously crafted, to allow the viewer to feel as if they’re standing within the chaos. Full of anxiety and chaos, the film is effective in giving you the sense of what it would’ve been like to stand in the midst of what they refer to as a “revolution.” And yes, the show was in fact a revolution, even if NBC didn’t know it. While the show was a pawn in a game of chess between the network and Johnny Carson, Lorne Michaels remains committed to giving them something they didn’t know they wanted: It’s something that television needed.

The show is chock full of events that has you on the edge of your seat. As the hour and a half becomes minutes, the set is still not fully finished, John Belushi hasn’t signed his contract, lights are falling, cocaine flows like sweet wine, people have panic attacks, nobody wants to write for The Muppets, the censor takes issue with everything they’re wanting to write, Milton Berle and the network are hovering over everyone, and Dick Ebersol keeps trying to foist product placement upon the cast and crew.

Have certain liberties been taken? Yes. Things have been dramatized for the ultimate effect of anything can happen, some timelines have been moved around. But even as a loyal Saturday Night Live - and someone who was quick to point out in my head “that didn’t happen there” - I can assure you that none of that matters. The most important thing you can do when you’re watching this movie is buy into the notion that “anything can happen.” Because those are the pillars that SNL is built upon, being a live broadcast and all. Like the show, the movie needs to make you feel like they’re working without a net. The reality is, of course, everything is planned within an inch of its life. Still, there seems to be room for the unpredictable.

A challenge for any biopic is casting. The cast you choose needs to be so good that - again - you can suspend disbelief that these aren’t the real people. And that all begins with Gabrielle LaBelle, who had a star making turn as a fictionalized Steven Spielberg in The Fablemans. Here he is tasked with playing another young mogul as Lorne Michaels. His shoulders is what all of the stakes rest on, as he has to put out a million fires and still manage to maintain his Canadian coolness. LaBelle pulls off this task effortlessly, never losing his temper or yelling once, while also somehow showing Michaels’ internalized nerves. Not to mention, the resemblance between the two is uncanny. He remains the film’s lucky charm.

Other standouts include Cory Michael Smith as Chevy Chase, Lamorne Morris as Garrett Morris - no relation - Tommy Dewey as Michael O’Donoghue, Nicholas Braun as Andy Kaufman/Jim Henson, and Rachel Sennott as Rosie Schuster. Each performer has managed to stop trying to impersonate their real-life counterpart, and instead just inhabit the role that they’re playing. Nobody looks like they’re trying too hard to match a cadence or energy, particularly Smith who seems as if he just inherited every mannerism from Chase himself. There’s an art form to it, and every single one of them nails it.

The spirited energy of the film goes beyond just the cast. It’s how every element comes together to keep the well-oiled machine running as it should. From the beautiful cinematography - shot on 16mm! - to Jon Batiste’s jazz-y score - which keeps the action moving and was actually done live on set - every nuance is perfectly concocted. Nothing feels out of place or too modern. If there is such a thing as a time machine, it’d be this film.

Being a fly on the wall at Saturday Night Live is a dream for many of us. It’s a dream that you may or may not be fortunate enough to conquer. That being said, this film is successful in making you feel like you’re right there, living out that dream of being a fly on the wall. And not only are you a fly on the wall for any episode, you’re there for the debut, where the stakes are remarkably high and the plug could be pulled at any moment.

Look, we all know that things work out fine in the end. It’s one of those movies where you can’t not know the ending: Everyone comes together and puts on a show that laid the groundwork for 50 years of a comedy institution. But none of that matters. You’re just captivated by that alternate reality thought of “What if something had gone irreversibly wrong?” Luckily, that wasn’t the case. The fact that you buy into it while knowing the outcome is perhaps Reitman’s greatest feat with Saturday Night.