Thursday 30 January 2025 12:37 pm

Saturday Night review: Inside the mad origin story of Saturday Night Live

Behind-the-scenes movies offering a glimpse behind famous moments in cultural history are having something of a moment. Some are great, like Mank’s dramatisation of the making of Citizen Kane in, and some are awful, like when Nicole Kidman donned horrifying prosthetics to play Lucille Ball in Being The Ricardos. This week, Ghostbusters: Afterlife director Jason Reitman takes on a comedy behemoth in the story of the first episode of Saturday Night Live.

Saturday Night stars Gabriel LaBelle as SNL creator Lorne Michaels. It’s October 11, 1975, and the up-and-coming producer has bet everything on his new concept – a late-night sketch show featuring comedy talents he has plucked from obscurity. Believing this new brand of irreverent comedy will speak to a new generation, the countdown to showtime begins, but nothing seems to go according to plan.

The inside story of Saturday Night Live

The film hits the ground running with a frenetic pace reminiscent of 2013’s Birdman, where the leads race around the set avoiding sarcastic barbs and putting out fires. The wit is rapid-fire and hilarious in parts, capturing the chaotic genius that was required to break the rules and start an institution. Every stop made along the way in the countdown to showtime contains a cutting remark or hilarious insight, meaning that even if a joke doesn’t land there’ll be another along in a second.

At the centre of the madness is Michaels, who is the sardonic heart of the piece. LaBelle plays Saturday Night Live’s creator as someone who is fearless, calmly defending his wacky cast from stiff suits who threaten the show with cancellation at every turn. You’d be tempted to think this was the man himself manicuring history, but Michaels wasn’t involved with the movie and reportedly still hasn’t seen it. However accurate to real life, he symbolises the magic of winging it, and fighting for an idea you believe in.

The actors playing famous faces are mostly impressive. It’s a tough proposition, given the fact that practically everyone involved in the early days went on to be a megastar, and as such is hard to capture authentically on-screen. For example, Dylan O’Brien acts and sounds like Dan Aykroyd but doesn’t especially look like him. On the other hand, Matt Wood is the image of Jon Belushi, but feels too much like a caricature of the Animal House legend.

There are, however, some actors who get the balance just right. Chevy Chase might not appreciate Cory Michael Smith’s portrait of him as a shallow narcissist, but it certainly captures the essence of the public perception of him. Equally brilliant is Nicholas Braun as Jim Henson, the soft-spoken Muppets genius who is an innocent among lunatics. Rachel Sennott has an interesting arc as Rosie Shuster, SNL’s head writer and Michael’s wife, trying to figure out her place in his life and in the new show.

Saturday Night may require an audience already enamoured with the brilliant Saturday Night Live long-running sketch show, but Reitman creates an affectionate tribute to an icon of American culture. As behind-the-scenes biopics go, it succeeds where many others have failed.