Review: Saturday Night

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Official synopsis: At 11:30pm on October 11th, 1975, a ferocious troupe of young comedians and writers lead by Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle) changed television forever. Find out what happened behind the scenes in the 90 minutes leading up to the first broadcast of Saturday Night Live.

SNL has been on longer than I've been alive. I don't know a world without it, and it's something I've always watched. (Yes, SNL is still funny. It's always been funny, but everyone has their off days/shows) So watching a film by Jason Reitman, I director I generally enjoy was a given.

Reitman must be living in his Aaron Sorkin era because I felt him all over the script. The dialogue is fast paced, there's a lot of quick cuts. It reminded me a lot of The Newsroom in places. That snappy feel is what I enjoyed most about Saturday Night.  Everything is two seconds away from falling apart, but they keep plugging away.

The cast is varied. You have actors like Dylan O'Brien and Cory Michael Smith tasked with playing giants Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase, they do great impressions. My favorite performance goes to Emmy Winner Lamorne Morris who plays Garrett Morris. He was excellent. Ella Hunt and Emily Fairn playing Gilda Radner and Laraine Newman were lovely And of course there's Cooper Hoffman, who reminds me so much of his dad that it's almost sad. .

On the other side, there were performances I just didn't vibe with. Gabriel LaBelle, despite once again getting the opportunity to play a famous vessel is just...there. Again. He plays Lorne the same way he played fictional Steven Spielberg in The Fabelmans and I just wasn't blown away. Nicholas Braun plays two different roles - Andy Kaufman and Jim Henson, and I found that most distracting if anything. I know he originally wasn't supposed to play Kaufman, but I don't think putting him in a dual role was the best move. They could've found someone else. 

Still, as messy as this was at times, it was a good watch and never had time to be boring. And like the real SNL, it was never short on laughs.

Grade: B

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