Saturday Night (2024)

109 min
Directed by Jason Reitman

At 11:30pm on October 11, 1975, a ferocious troupe of young comedians and writers changed television forever. This is the story of what happened behind the scenes in the 90 minutes leading up to the first broadcast of Saturday Night Live.

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10:1

7.2

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Top comments

ucuruju

Have you ever seen a movie based on a true story where you know none of the dialogue was ever said in real life? Even if it was documented?

2 months ago

Siskoid

Live, from New York! It's Saturday Night! The tell-some does two things to alleviate the humdrum "this happened and then this happened" of stock biopics. One is that it's told in real time, telling the story of SNL's beginnings through the lens of only the 90 minutes before the first episode went on air. The other is eschewing factual detail for the FEELING of being there. And that feeling is utter chaos. If you've ever stage managed a show, it's pretty relatable. If you staged managed many, imagine all the things that have gone wrong and setting them on the same night (which I have no doubt is one of the historical changes made to craft the movie - no way did this ALL happen on the same night). Some people are just their onscreen characters, or played for laughs, because that's how it FELT to know them. The movie ends just where you want it to, even though that didn't happen on the night in question. But it FEELS like it should have. The real story, though they never put a post-it on it is of a polite Canadian producer who wants to please everyone trying to juggle a new format, unruly writers, conservative "suits", annoyed technicians, and an insane bunch of jokesters, bring order to the chaos by… being nice? It's a lot of fun to watch. And the casting is actually pretty amazing too. The actors look and sound like the originals, but give performances, not impressions. But when they do, do impressions, they're great (I'm thinking J.K. Simmons as Milton Berle and Dylan O'Brien as Dan Aykroyd in particular). I'm smelling the first Casting Director Oscar all over this one.

3 months ago