“Saturday Night” is a shrine to the late night show with no substance – The Cavalier Daily

The year is 1975, and producer Lorne Michaels has the task of a lifetime ahead of him – taming an unruly cast, negotiating with a fed-up crew, and convincing producers of the worthiness of his new variety show – all just an hour and a half before The first episode of “Saturday Night Live” airs. Directed by Jason Reitman and co-written by Reitman and Gil Kenan, the new film “Saturday Night” seeks to dramatize that legendary evening and celebrate the series’ 50th anniversary with a dramatic retelling of its miraculous origin. Despite its nostalgic quality and impressive acting, the film’s most impressive achievement is that one hour and 49 minutes feels like four hours.

While trying to get his new show on the air, Michaels runs into almost every obstacle in the book, from lights crashing from the ceiling to cast members quitting right before the show begins. Despite all of this, Michaels remains steadfast and passionate in his commitment to the new show, which pays off in the final moments when the show successfully airs.

“Saturday Night” features a countdown-based structure, with title cards providing precise time stamps for on-screen actions to give audiences a sense of how little time the cast and crew have for the premiere. Reitman described The film is described as a “thriller-comedy,” and you can see why: the film is fast-paced in some scenes, using long sequences in which the camera snakes through a loud and busy backstage room to create an intense, thrilling experience to create atmosphere.

However, what could have been a fast-paced, stress-inducing thrill ride throughout was bogged down by numerous repetitive, dialogue-heavy sequences that dragged on for minutes. A large portion of the film involves Michaels trying to impress the network’s executives and arguing with Dick Ebersol, a cynical NBC producer played by Cooper Hoffman. While Reitman and Kenan are snappy, Sorkinesque The dialogue gives the script a sharp wit, long scenes of repetitive conversations without action significantly slow down the momentum of the film.

In these seemingly endless scenes, “Saturday Night” revels in its own heartfelt and tough dialogue – it often feels as if certain lines were written just to put on a movie poster. “Saturday Night” feels less like a movie and more like an advertisement for the show.

When Ebersol asks Michaels if he knows what the show actually “is,” Michaels replies, “Did anyone ask Edison what a light bulb was when he invented electricity?”

Although the line is partly a self-aware nod to Michaels’ hubris, the self-congratulatory tone that permeates the rest of the film quickly erases the irony.

Another scene in which Michaels and Ebersol argue in a stairwell brings out this unironic self-aggrandizement. Michaels says the network is lucky to have a show as “relevant” as this one. Ebersol snaps back, implying that NBC picked up the show knowing it would fail.

“Have you ever wondered why they said yes to a counterculture show with complete strangers, no narrative and even less structure?” says Ebersol. “They want you to fail.”

Cheesy monologues and conversations like this, usually involving Michaels, are intended to show the audience how groundbreaking the variety show was at the time. The dialogue positions the writers and cast as underdogs, beating the odds of the big, bad television industry. However, audiences who know the show’s ultimate success don’t need to be told this – especially not as frequently and forcefully as the film seems to believe. The constant repetition of the series’ fame seems both unnecessary and exaggerated.

Despite its problems with pacing and dialogue, Saturday Night’s greatest strength lies in its historical and cultural references. An almost overwhelming number of familiar faces appear on screen, from Nicholas Braun as “Muppets” creator Jim Henson to Matthew Rhys as stand-up comedian George Carlin. The 70s costumes and styling are to die for, and so is the film filled with references to the show that any seasoned SNL fan is sure to spot. For this reason, the film may be more suitable for viewers who grew up with the early seasons of the series.

The film also features several standout performances from a brilliant cast. Cory Michael Smith portrays actor Chevy Chase with frightening accuracy, mastering his sardonic wit and angry bravado.

Veteran actors Willem Dafoe and JK Simmons add a welcome touch of maturity to an otherwise green cast as NBC executive David Tebet and TV host Milton Berle, respectively. Playing two greedy men just waiting for Saturday Night Live to fail, these two embody the predatory television establishment well.

“Saturday Night” is a nod to the show’s early problems with representation. Lamorne Morris delivers a heartwarming portrayal of Garrett Morris, a performer and playwright who grapples with his role as the show’s only black cast member.

Morris talks to her co-star Jane Curtain – played by Kim Matula – about her own identity as an older woman and how the two of them feel like outsiders in the ensemble. Not only does this scene humanize and add depth to the supporting characters, but it also points to the great strides the series has made in diversity and representation since the 1970s.

Although “Saturday Night” is brimming with talent, it wastes its actors’ gifts on a tepid script. Instead of including adequate background information and character development, the film relies too heavily on the assumption that the audience already knows a lot about its characters. Released exactly fifty years after the time in which it is set, this approach is both unkind and unfair to the audience. What the audience is left with is a stack of solid celebrity impressions with little substance.

At a time when SNL and its legacy are under constant pressure Test“Saturday Night” offers filmmakers an opportunity to remind audiences of the great wonder inherent in the show’s existence. Reitman and Kenan are not wrong in their assertion that the show, with its edgy humor and novel vaudeville structure, was revolutionary at the time and worthy of a retelling.

However, the film magnifies the show’s origins and cultural significance to a degree that is almost suffocating. The best thing you can say about SNL — what’s kept viewers coming back to it after fifty years — is that it doesn’t take itself too seriously. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the accompanying film.