Saturday Night Reviews

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

• Biography

• Comedy

• Drama

• History

It's a wildly entertaining love letter to a night of television that marked a cultural watershed.

At its best, the film demonstrates a showbiz truism: It takes a lot of hard work to make something look easy.

I was not expecting this. What a film. What a cast. Such a great underdog story. The scene where Lorne finds out that they set him up to fail was shocking, especially once you figure out that SNL is going to 50 years next year. Just a hectic, chaotic experience that I loved every second of. I would love too see more films like this. Maybe one about South Park considering how chaotic the making of it is. Also, does Willem Dafoe have it in his contract that he can't go 3 months without being in a movie? 9.7/10

Saturday Night the movie was a great experience—entertaining and fun to watch on the big screen! The performances are well done, and the humor is great. Whether you're a longtime fan or new to the show, it keeps you invested throughout,

With so many potential crises underfoot, Saturday Night manages to pass the Apollo 13 sniff-test of historical dramas: we know everything’s going to come out all right, but the film nonetheless generates enough suspense to make us think that it might not.

The nostalgia is so thick in Saturday Night, Jason Reitman’s furiously busy paean to the nascent days of SNL, so unrelenting and potent, that eventually it unmoors from the film and begins swallowing its characters whole, like the titular alien in Steve McQueen’s The Blob.

Jason Reitman energetically tracks the lead-up to the first episode of SNL in 1975, but the result is only fitfully funny, leaving the cast struggling to register. Best in show are Dylan O'Brien as Dan Aykroyd, Cory Michael Smith as Chevy Chase and Nicholas Braun in a surprise dual role.

The issue is that the mania never builds: a few crashing stage lights and the personalities surrounding Lorne never are convincingly erratic enough. There’s no real tension, and certainly nothing in the way of feature-justifying stakes.

There’s never the satisfying pleasure of problems being solved – just people frantically raising them and things magically coming together, a film that should be about process that doesn’t seem particularly interested in it.

Much better than I expected based on critic reviews. Great performances, frenetic energy executed deftly by Reitman, well paced. The whole movie is a crescendo until theseminallas

Saturday Night is a magnifying chaos filled with insanely great portrayal of these iconic real life comedian, Jason Reitman's energetic fun filmmaking style and Jon Batiste's electrifying score pumping and grooving in the background was truly one of the great addition to Saturday Night, while it might be tiring for some people, it brilliantly captures the essence of what an actual great chaos is, what's fascinating is that, if you're unfamiliar with the real-life people portrayed, you might assume they're exaggerated caricatures, when in reality, that's exactly how they act, again, thanks to the stellar performance by all the cast, the film biggest flaw, however, is that its high energy can be overwhelming and that it could have a chance to be a tiring movie to follow for other people, i felt it in the first 30 minutes, it's a movie that demands the right mood and mindset to fully enjoy, but once you find its rhythm, it becomes an entertaining and exhilarating ride from start to finish.

I liked it a lot, not gonna pretend I'm on expert on the time frame and any of the characterizations but the energy and directing was high level and the jokes and dialogue came fast and full.

I have to admit that I liked it more than I've liked SNL for a while now. Most of that is directed towards Gabriel LaBelle, Cory Michael Smith, and Emily Fairn (I'm completely infatuated with her and they didn't show her enough for me). LaBelle did an amazing job carrying this for most of the movie and the tension built at a steady pace until the very end. I was expecting something more self-serving, but it really wasn't. HOWEVER! I did not like the portrayal of George Carlin. Even if it's true, I'm such a huge fan of his, I can't forgive that hey totally overlooked his genius just to **** on him here. The guy who played Belushi was terrible. We saw none of the wit and charm of the actual John Belushi. And for the cherry on top of that turd, they did this weird, touchy-feelie homage to both him and Gilda Radner, making them seem like some freewheeling hippies instead of edgy, funny, smart actors/comics. That was disappointing and the main reason for my rating of 6.

It is a well-acted movie that does a good job of showing the chaos of a live comedy show. That being said, it feels painfully cluttered and runs a good 10-15 minutes too long. By the time you get halfway through the movie, you wish it was over already.

St. Louis Film Critics Association, US

• 2 Wins & 4 Nominations

Astra Film Awards

• 1 Win & 3 Nominations