Written by Andreas Babiolakis

Warning: The following review is of a film that is part of TIFF 2024 and may contain spoilers for Saturday Night. Reader discretion is advised.

Even though I am not the world’s biggest fan of Saturday Night Live, I appreciate and understand the iconic sketch and variety show enough to know what power it holds in the grand scheme of entertainment. Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night, titled after the very first moniker of this show (in case you didn’t know), is a celebration that takes place around forty nine years after the very first episode (I’d ask why they didn’t just wait one more year for the big five-oh, but I guess it doesn’t matter). Reitman and a massive, star-studded cast (including numerous cameos) try to replicate the supposed insanity of piecing together the preliminary Saturday Night episode against all odds; a handful of twenty-something nobodies (at the time) trying their hand at skits with last minute writing, while famous guests like George Carlin, Jim Henson, and Andy Kaufman (who, I suppose, were still not as big as they were about to be) proliferate the rest of the evening; then there are the musical accompaniments like Billy Preston there to evoke the melodies of the nighttime.

Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle) is unsure of what his vision is going to be, despite this opportunity to make something of himself via the powers of NBC; it appears at first that the executives actually see something in him and his merry troupe, but it’s clear that this is all just a ploy to toy around with Johnny Carson during a contractual dispute. Nonetheless, if others don’t see the potential that Michaels possesses, then he has to assure himself that he must see the capabilities within himself. As a result, he has to troubleshoot and problem solve on the fly, with ninety minutes remaining before the very first episode is to go straight to air (with no safety net). Saturday Night is purely frenzied, with not a real second to relax and not worry about what is to happen of this show of dreamers left scrambling mere minutes before air.

Except that also isn’t true. We know that Saturday Night Life is nearly fifty years old, and the legacy is impossible to forget while watching Saturday Night. We know how this story ends, but Reitman uses this opportunity to instead shed light on how this almost didn’t happen, which keeps the film interesting and anxious enough. In typical SNL fashion, this film is stuffed with jokes, and I have to be honest with saying that the vast majority of the comedy here works. It truly is a laugh a minute at times, which will keep you going despite you never truly feeling the odds of what could happen due to the obvious resolution of these events (ones, of which, I’m not even sure of how accurate they are). I couldn’t help but think about Danny Boyle’s Steve Jobs the entire film, especially because we also know what happens after each of the product launches in this motion picture (they obviously all succeeded) and yet we still feel the actual weight of the dread and worry that Boyle wants us to experience. Despite all that is going on in Saturday Night, I was never actually worried.

There’s also the fact that these tense moments before the launch of three Apple products had us learning more about Steve Jobs and the people around him. With Saturday Night, I only felt like I got to learn a bit more about Lorne Michaels at that young age (perhaps a necessary reminder of where he came from), but still not enough to be able to truly analyze what makes him tick or how he got to this place (I didn’t even know he was a Torontonian before feeling forced to look up his Wikipedia page just out of the hunger for more information, of which this film doesn’t really supply). If you’re wondering about how familiar we get with the SNL cast (the Chevy Chases, John Belushis, and Gilda Radnors of the world), you can forget it. You’re going to get the comic icons as you saw them on television: constantly “on,” and never to fully reveal themselves.

While it’s easy to get caught up in the fun of Saturday Night (and, believe me, this is a hell of a ride in that respect, with some of the great lines and retorts of the year), you’ll reach that final shot feeling maybe a little over hyped up. The film amounts to a bit of a bubble instead of the full-on explosion you’d expect after having shaken the can of pop so furiously for an hour and forty minutes. Saturday Night does get ugly at times (particularly when Chase and Belushi, who infamously hated one another, butt heads), but I wish it got outright hideous. The comedy was dangerous. I wish the film was as well. The myriad of cameo appearances also range from fantastic (Matthew Rhys as George Carlin), decent (Nicholas Podany as Billy Crystal), and questionable (Nicholas Braun as Jim Henson, who resorts the beloved figure to a bit of a simpering man baby).

Then there is LaBelle as Michaels who is great, who loses his prominence in scenes only to the magnificent Cooper Hoffman (as executive Dick Ebersol), who isn’t in the film much but is incredibly gripping. Between both LaBelle and Hoffman, I feel an overwhelming confidence in the future of acting in these capable, young hands. It’s the same kind of faith many had to have had in those who pieced together Saturday Night Live, and, while Jason Reitman’s attempt to capture the anarchy of these colourful characters (those, of whom, I wish we got to know better) is more hilarious than it is meaningful, I feel like this film was meant for fans of the series: it’s a ninety minute film about the last ninety minutes before the most important ninety minutes of Saturday night. It’s sincere enough for fans of the show to work, and it will make those in need of a laugh howl.

Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Ryerson University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.