Saturday Night Live is one of television’s longest running shows ever, with the hit sketch comedy series hitting its 50th season this year. SNL will celebrate the monumental milestone of 50 years in early February in Radio City. Alongside the celebration, a biopic cataloging the legendary show’s opening night recently hit theaters.
Saturday Night featuring Gabriel Labelle, Cory Michael Smith, Rachel Sennott, and Cooper Hoffman, is a biographic drama-comedy hybrid that wonderfully captures the story of what went on behind the scenes before SNL’s first episode. The film has an evidently positive reception with an 80% audience score on rotten tomatoes, and is perceived to be mostly accurate in its depiction of the night’s general mood and events.
Saturday Night is well crafted, all the way down to its actors. The cast has many standouts, filled with many younger names you likely haven’t heard before. This was a wise decision, and one that showed a rather charming parallel to the original SNL cast who were also younger stars yet to get their big break until that fateful Saturday night on October 11th, 1975.
In contrast to this however, noteable well-established actors also added depth to the cast and helped serve as relative antagonists. Willem Dafoe and J.K. Simmons shined brightly as David Tebet and Milton Berle respectively, and their performances added crucial dimension to certain aspects of the film.
The film itself was well formulated story-wise, and having the time-till-debut coincide with the run time of the movie was a nice touch. Like many biographic dramas, it was likely to veer away from reality in some aspects. However, according to most accounts from those there on the night seem to believe that it to be mostly accurate in its depictions.
The sometimes violent changes between comedy and dire situations can cause potential whiplash to be sure, but nevertheless provide a fantastical and engaging narrative that keeps anyone invested engaged throughout. SNL creator Lorne Michaels is shown in a sympathetic and at times cryptic light, which gives the character a personality that keeps you interested. Gabriel Labelle’s artistic choices while playing Michaels keep you interested, and make you just as tense and hopeful in anticipation of seeing the hit sketch-comedy show beat the odds and make it to air as he was.
Saturday Night executes the point it seeks to make wonderfully. It tells an engaging, and interesting real life story, with wonderful storytellers in the form of the actors bringing real people to life. The film is dramatic, with wonderfully crafted set-ups for comedy interspersed within the narrative, and is certainly worth a watch.
