Saturday Night Live has been on the air for 50 years and has jumpstarted many acting careers. It’s the biggest sketch comedy series of all time and has a rich and fascinating history. A biopic showcasing what went down on the night of the very first episode has been released to dive into that history. That film, simply titled Saturday Night, has been getting a lot of attention from audiences and critics. Does it do the prestigious sketch comedy series justice, or does it fall flat? Let’s take a peek backstage to find out.

The Good

The main thing everyone will talk about when it comes to this movie is its cast. Every actor and actress completely disappears into their roles while perfectly recreating the younger versions of everyone involved with the early stages of the show. It’s like watching the actual people who made SNL 50 years ago. The likes of Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, and Garret Morris matched the original comedians perfectly. Also, each performer blends the emotion and the humor together exceptionally well, which is impressive.

Saturday Night Live is a comedy series, so it makes sense to hope that the movie about making it is funny. Thankfully, Saturday Night is hilarious. The clever dialogue and situational humor lead to plenty of big laughs. Surprisingly, there’s also quite a few moments of slapstick that are just as funny with Lorne Michaels getting splashed with fake blood or Chevy Chase tripping and falling. There’s something for just about any type of audience member to laugh at.

Despite there being lots of laughs, there are scenes that are downright suspenseful. Even though we either know or can easily look up what went down, it’s still hard not to hold your breath as you fight for Lorne and his ragtag team to succeed. There’s even a suspenseful moment that showcases whether or not the show will go live or not. Obviously we know that it does, but the filmmakers present it as something that will get your blood pumping as you await the answer. 

The film is also incredibly well shot. Not only does each frame look incredible, but most of the shots are long and follow the action with minimal cuts, which is quite interesting. It’s somewhat reminiscent of how Birdman was shot. Here, though, it’s done in a way that replicates the feeling of the characters’ stress due to how frantic and fast-paced it is.

In addition to the movie looking great and feeling frantic, it also completely transports audiences to the year of 1975. The sets, costumes, and hair really set the scene, and there’s an old-style graininess to it all that really drives it home. It’s like you’re really there on the night of their first show.

Despite this being a retelling of real events, many of these “characters” get a satisfying development arc. Lorne goes from being so timid that his knocks on a door aren’t heard to being able to look the VP of talent relations in the face and speak up to defend his show. Garret Morris goes on a bit of a journey to discover what his place is among the others. Even the crew bands together to help finish putting bricks together for the set, showing their confidence in the show growing. It leads to a lot of heart and helps to allow the audience to care about the characters.

Make no mistake, this is a fictional retelling of the events that led up to the first episode of Saturday Night Live, but it still feels honest. It doesn’t present things through rose-tinted glasses. It shows the problems with those who made the show rather than just focusing on what needed to be overcome. There’s a spotlight on drug abuse, violence, and the terrible ways in which some people treated others. It doesn’t hold back from showing the downsides of these often idealized performers.

The story is an inspirational one. It encourages creatives to keep trying no matter what the odds are against them. It tells the audience that if they truly believe in their art, that they should keep trying to get it out there. If they do, it can become one of the biggest pieces of media around, even if no one else believes in them at first.

The Bad

Again, obviously, things are dramatized and happen somewhat differently than what really went down. If you’re someone who was expecting to see everything exactly how it all happened, you’re out of luck. That being said, things need to be that way for it all to fit a movie format and to be entertaining, so it’s not a big deal.

The film is written with the assumption that the audience knows what happened before and after the events of the story and already knows who some of the characters are. It’s a fair assumption to an extent, as most people who would be interested in seeing it are fans of SNL, but there are certainly moments in which folks will have some questions that aren’t necessarily answered. Everything needed for this particular story is there, but there is still some information that could have been included.

With such a large ensemble cast, it should be expected that some characters will get more of the spotlight than others. That being said, some don’t get much of the screen time at all, despite being part of the original cast of the show. It’s hard not to notice that some of the characters were shoved to the side so that others may get much more screen time. It’s also rather noticeable that most of the characters who were lacking in screen time were the women who were on the show originally, which is a bit of a problem.

Conclusion

Saturday Night may not be the perfectly accurate retelling that some folks want, but it’s a wildly entertaining one. It celebrates the history of Saturday Night Live while never shying away from some of the downsides of those involved. It blends humor with drama perfectly. It’s shot brilliantly. Anyone looking to regain some inspiration in their art should definitely give this one a watch. If that’s not you, you’ll still get plenty of entertainment out of it.

Rating 9/10

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