Stressful television is entertaining, at least, that’s what recent years seem to show. Take 2019’s “Uncut Gems,” a pressure cooker of a film following a gambling addict scrambling to recover a gem before it’s too late. Or hit FX show “The Bear” which throws a restaurant kitchen into constant high-pressure chaos, carefully designed to spike the viewer’s heart rate each episode. The filmmakers hold the audience in a perpetual state of tension that never allows them to fully relax until credits roll. In an era where writers and directors find themselves fighting with cell phones for an audience’s attention, crafting a story that forces the audience to pay attention through tension and stress is more important than ever. It is clearly in this vein that “Saturday Night” was conceived.
Set 90 minutes before the airing of the first ever Saturday Night show, the show follows “Saturday Night Live” (SNL) producer Lorne Michaels (Gabriel Labelle) as he races to get the show to completion before 11:30 p.m., when the show goes live. Plenty of challenges crop up along the way, with people quitting, lights crashing, fires being set and executives determined to snuff the show before it can ever begin properly.
There is a lot to love technically about “Saturday Night.” There is truly exquisite camerawork and staging that zips around wildly, immediately immersing you in the grand, controlled chaos of the SNL set. Long tracking shots take their time to establish the prominent players in the SNL of 1975: the six main cast members, a whole host of crew attempting to set up a 90-minute variety show, a horde of faceless NBC executives and an out-of-control John Belushi (Matt Wood) running around in a bee costume. It’s a lot to keep track of, and as the movie goes on, it begins to feel like a microcosm of a chaotic community pushing themselves to create something larger than themselves.
There’s a lot of great performances in “Saturday Night,” with some performers given more opportunities to shine than others. Labelle as the main character is given the task of being the lynchpin of the movie, and he does a good job of that. Cory Michael Smith as Chevy Chase is a standout, bringing a since-controversial comedian fully to life. But Dylan O’Brien as Dan Aykroyd was unexpectedly the best performance. With a gentle, easy charm his scenes came as a balm in the middle of high tension of the rest of the movie. If there’s only one reason you’ll watch “Saturday Night,” let that reason be Dylan O’Brien’s performance.
But for all its great qualities, “Saturday Night” is not a perfect film by any means. Its score, though appropriately pulse-pounding, becomes a tad overused at times. And in spite of the film’s emphasis on timing – the show must be ninety minutes and go on exactly at 11:30 p.m. – the film itself does not use time wisely. Although it’s just under two hours, it still drags on for a little too long, which winds up hurting the film’s frenetic pace a little as things flounder slightly in the third act. But despite these slight drawbacks, “Saturday Night” is an enjoyable watch.
Verdict: Though the film is a little too long, it is an interesting behind-the-scenes look at the chaotic birth of SNL with plenty of standout performances.
