By Saturday Night is the real-time story of young producer Lorne Michaels trying desperately to keep his new live TV show on the rails, 90 minutes to the premiere…Spoiler alert: it wasn’t smooth sailing.
It’s October 11, 1975. In 90 minutes, the 1st ever episode of Saturday Night Live will air live on NBC. Ambitious producer Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle) oversees an unprepared cast & crew, betting it all on his new vision.
source: Sony Pictures Releasing
Producer Dick Ebersol (Cooper Hoffman) tells Lorne that the executives want him to fail: he’s leading a group of inexperienced ragtag comedians, to make a hit show with no script, for executives that sneer at the 70s counterculture. And as 11:30 pm EST inches closer, it’s hard to say which will be destroyed first: the show, or the sanity of the people making it.
Many dramas about real-life pieces of entertainment often come across as overly reverential, or get bogged down in favor of highlighting Oscar-winning performances. The 1st trailer for Saturday Night avoids both, opting for a quieter ticking-clock structure.
The focus on the inherent chaos of on-set creation feels legitimate and groundbreaking thanks to the smooth tie-in to the changing landscape of the 70s. SNL isn’t just a show, it’s a statement from the young generation that they run the culture now.
Performances opt for subtle realism, commendable given the boisterousness of the real-life individuals. Star Gabriel LaBelle proves an effective lightning rod to ground the film’s madness, wonderfully portraying an poor ambitious writer whose sanity is about to snap. Tonally, it could have been very easy for comedy legend Jason Reitman to turn this premise into a cartoon, but he offsets the humor with a level of grounded pathos that lets the film stand more confidently.
Directed by Jason Reitman, Saturday Night will release theatrically in the US on October 11, 2024. The movie stars an ensemble cast led by Gabriel LaBelle.
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