Movie Review: Saturday Night (2024)
https://open.spotify.com/episode/1DwuYAWQuBw4ZZNh2V7ISn?si=MzdeqlRvS3isBu10NcApnQ
If someone is just looking for a nostalgic view of the immediate lead-up to the premiere of Saturday Night Live, Saturday Night will likely fill that void. The production design, costuming, and acting are all pitch-perfect so it looks and feels authentically like 1975. There are a few narrative issues which could just be because that's what actually happened as they were trying to get the show to air but the ending does fall completely flat.
The idea of having the movie set mostly in real time over the 90 minutes leading to the premiere is great for tone and pacing because it creates a frenetic pace that builds a fantastic feeling of anxiety. Occasionally as the action slows this can create some weird pacing issues but the real only problem with this comes at the very end when things all coalesce just in time. There's no emotional resolution to any of the established arcs or anything so they spend all this time fleshing out an emotional struggle with some characters, and even those are not resolved. Everything just kind of works out because we know it does but it removes impact from the resolution.
Similarly, the big thing this movie is missing is Lorne (and by extension, the audience) getting a chance to see the finished product and bask in the moment as this thing he was trying to get to work comes together the way he envisioned it. At the very end, rather than just showing the cold open, they could have taken us through all the skits from that pilot so it ends more triumphantly. If someone sees this movie without knowing what Saturday Night Live is or that this is supposed to be really what happened, this ending reads more as "well at least they made it to air" instead of "this is the start of something with a massive legacy." I could also see an Oppenheimer-like moment working where we get clips of the future just to really hammer that home if they didn't want to recreate the original skits but either way it ends on kind of a weak note.
This movie is a four, watch it in a theater because it is entertaining enough but it's not something you have to rush out to see immediately. It's funny when it needs to be and most of the emotional beats do land well enough but the third act falls apart a bit.
★★★★
Saturday Night
Directed by: Jason Reitman
Written by: Gil Keenan and Jason Reitman
Starring: Gabriel LaBelle, Rachel Sennott, Cory Michael Smith, Ella Hunt, Dylan O'Brien, Lamorne Morris, Willem Dafoe, J.K. Simmons, Andrew Barth Feldman, Cooper Hoffman
Rating: R
Release Date: October 11th, 2024
