Jason Reitman’s drama is a hollow recreation of a chaotic, iconic night

Saturday Night Live It’s just one year away from its 50th anniversary, and here comes Jason Reitman with a cheesy, gore-filled film adaptation of the show’s debut. Rittman is intimately connected to SNL Thanks to his father, Ivan Reitman, there is such a strong feeling that no one else can take on such a massive project as Saturday night,
with its various moving parts. But the film fails to answer one crucial question: Why does this exist?

Saturday night’s recreation of history is fun (but leaves a lot to be desired)

Full disclosure: I’ve never been the biggest fan of SNLBut it’s through no fault of your own. However, the show has significant power, and I recognize many cultural moments despite not being fully immersed in its lore. Saturday night Taps into the origins, and luckily the ensemble and crew from the show’s inception have stood the test of time, so when Lamorne Morris steps onto the scene as Garrett Morris (no blood relation), it’s a thrill That sends down my spine.

It’s amazing how well Reitman and casting director John Papsidera do with casting the iconic faces of SNL. If anything is gained from this effort, watching the actors take on iconic roles is fun; Even the cast who play non-SNL Cast members are in on the joke, and no matter how little screen time they get, they make an impact.

Saturday nightThe main problem is his failure to recognize that the people pretending to be other people only work for the actual sketch show – at least under the circumstances. The show’s central draw is the exaggerated, trap-heavy clowning of political leaders, pop-culture icons and celebrities.

The film has us follow actors acting SNL Alumni serious and sincere, but this is not interesting enough because the particular real-life people are larger than life and so unique in their purpose. No biopic treatment will satisfy the hunger of seeing them in action. To be fair, this is not a traditional biopic by any means, but the conventional biopic tropes are on full display.

Imitating strange people does not make for a fun time

Jason Reitman has so much fear and love for Lorne Michaels and the show, but the immense effort he puts into recreating the chaos behind the scenes could be put to a documentary recounting the events. Archival footage, interviews, and maybe entertainment with the young cast would have been infinitely more entertaining. Saturday night Creates an artificial wall between us and the fact that the people who made SNL A cultural touchstone is not just characters – they are flesh and blood who made something great, even though the odds were against them.

It’s no secret that the current state of the show is dire. In the past, the jokes were funny, and the ensembles had more unique identities and personas among them. Reitman does well to single out the key players of 1975 who shaped the show and comedy as a whole, but as Saturday night Move on, frustration grows.

We don’t see the people as they were. Instead, we’re watching the film’s cast as they try to capture lightning in a bottle through imitation. Unfortunately, all the effort feels wasted when the film itself isn’t really funny. There are so few laugh-out-loud moments that it seems like a complete waste to have such good casting. I love the actors, but despite being talented and, at times, nailing the imitation, it’s never enough.

Strange left the building

Catch the near disaster that was the debut of Saturday Night Live is a good move for a film, but Reitman (and much of Hollywood) forgets that narrative films aren’t the only vehicle for exploring a culture-shifting moment. There is more joy to be had with archival footage of John Belushi and Gilda Radner than watching Matt Woods and Ella Hunt pretending to be them. Saturday night‘s most terrible mistake is the lack of genuine laughs. In the case of these two performances, specifically, the icons are reduced to caricatures with limited screen time. What comedy comes from this?

There are a few chuckles here and there, but for the most part, there’s an unshakeable sense of annoyance as Saturday night Move fast. Reitman gets the visuals right, and it’s like being transported to 1975 and the backstage catastrophe that leads to SNLs debut. We feel as lost and confused as the naysayers, doubting Lorne Michaels and his cast of young clowns. Nothing feels serious, yet everything is at stake. Reitman draws out the frustration, the kinetic energy and the vibrancy of time and space. However, he doesn’t catch any of the fun.

Ultimately, Reitman mismanaged the expectations for a movie about Saturday Night Lives debut. He hung on to show us how the debut came to be rather than establishing the people who made the series a cultural phenomenon. To do that, he would have to develop characters and give some iconic figures more screen time. I will return to my original argument: the separate narrative is a sound idea but for a documentary instead.

Saturday night Now playing in theaters. It premiered at the Telluride Film Festival before screening at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. The film is 109 minutes long and rated R for language, sexual references, some drug use and brief graphic nudity.