PREMISE
At 11:30pm on October 11th, 1975, a ferocious troupe of young comedians and writers changed television forever in the 90 minutes leading up to the first broadcast of Saturday Night Live.
THE GOOD STUFF
GABRIEL LABELLE – Welp, we might as well pencil Gabriel LaBelle in for an Oscar nom. There’s no overwhelming Oscar winning scenery chewing stuff here, he is simply versatile and consistent. He’s in command of every scene that he’s in, but he doesn’t overshadow anybody. His portrayal of Lorne Michaels is that of an underdog, yet his authority over the SNL cast throughout the film is never questionable. He’s funny but not annoying, and for the most part, when things really need a tender touch, he owns that, too.
There are not five better leading man performances in 2024. Pencil him in.
MORRIS, HOFFMAN, AND SMITH – To continue the banner year he’s currently having, Lamorne Morris’s performance as Garrett Morris is pretty good, and he absolutely makes the most with a relatively smaller role. Cooper Hoffman is great in the first act, and you do miss his character as it fades the longer the movie goes on. Corey Michael Smith as Chevy Chase should be considered one of the bigger breakout performances of the year. In my humble opinion, his character gets the most laughs in this film, and he has the best scene of the entire movie (a showdown with JK Simmons playing Milton Berle). I won’t be shocked if Smith is a name often mentioned during the upcoming award season.
PACING (THE GOOD) – Trust me, there is not a faster-paced movie released in all of 2024, and this may be the fastest-paced movie I can think of in the last couple of years. This movie wouldn’t work if it did not move as fast as it does. One could get the impression that as the film goes along, it’s actually moving in real-time, even though it isn’t. I can only assume that the filmmakers’ goal was to make this movie seem as chaotic as it is. It works.
If this movie were any slower, it wouldn’t work either.
THE BAD STUFF
PACING (THE BAD STUFF) – Now, it should be common knowledge for any moviegoer at this point; never go into a movie that is this fast-paced without bringing friends to help you catch up on s*** just in case. Thank goodness I had one with me when I saw this because the bathroom break that I took (that may have taken all of 3 minutes to accomplish) veered me so off course to what was happening that when I came back and asked my friend what I had missed, he told me like three whole goddamn things.
The bathroom breaks should take place in the second act for reasons I will explain in a second. But in that first act, stay placed in your seats.
ROSIE SHUSTER – I am not that big of a fan of SNL. I don’t know the show’s lore like so many comedy aficionados do. I am not aware of Rosie Shuster’s importance to the proceedings of this particular day or to the overall impact of this show.
What I am sure of is that her place when it comes to this film is to give the audience a lot of exposition. It sounds harsh to say, but the real bathroom breaks of this movie involve her character talking at length. I don’t know if we needed the backstory of any character in this film given the situations that are being presented. We can see what motivates them, and why they are the way that they are through the scenes that we see them in. Again, it sounds harsh to say, and I understand that Rosie Shuster was a real person. I don’t mean to disrespect her in any way, but I don’t know what this representation of her adds to the proceedings.
Honest to goodness, you could probably tell this exact same story in an equally effective manner without this character being here at all given the way she’s presented.
THE UGLY STUFF
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I guess the biggest compliment I can give this movie is that if you never really engaged in this show as a whole, watching this movie might fully arouse your curiosity. Regardless of the era, we always tend to hear these stories about how chaotic the making of these episodes are from members of the cast. If it was any wilder then what is being presented here, then its beyond miraculous that it’s lasted half of a century.
I cannot imagine someone watching this movie, liking it, and not wanting to watch the first episode immediately after. This will convert some of the people who never gave it a try.
SATURDAY NIGHT is in select theaters, and will be in theaters on October 11th
