Dog’s Movie House: “Saturday Night” Effectively Dramatizes The Chaos Behind The First Broadcast Featuring The Not Ready For Prime Time Players!

“Saturday Night” revolves primarily around creator/producer Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle), who is in the process of multitasking everything from lighting to rehearsals to gladhanding the moneymen and everything in between. He also knows that the reason for this opportunity stems from a contract dispute between NBC and Johnny Carson. In truth, NBC doesn’t care of “Saturday Night” (The “Live” was added later) succeeds or fails because the company simply sees it as a negotiating tactic with Carson. He’s gets told as much by NBC talent head Dave Tebet (Willem Defoe) and his own producer Dick Ebersol (Cooper Hoffman), but his stubborn streak combine with his belief in the show won’t let him accept anything but success. Even if one of his star players, John Belushi (Matt Wood) refuses to sign his contract just an hour before showtime.

“Saturday Night” plays out in a whirlwind of vingettes designed to create the atmosphere of constant movement. The camera is hardly ever still, moving from one stage to the next, one face to the next, and one scene to the next, without much in the way of typical cinematic transition. That’s a good thing because Reitman gives as an atmosphere that in tension filled and makes us root for the outcome despite the fact that history has shown that the show became a success and iconic in its own right.

Character development is unfortunately sacrificed in service to the story. Most of the performances are very good but because of the nature of the story and its structure, fail to go any deeper than initial impressions. A cast of relatively unknowns do a good job of inhabiting the classic cast members of “Saturday Night Live” with Dylan O’Brien earning top marks for his version of Dan Akroyd. Cory Michael Smith does a good Chevy Chase and Wood has some of the bigger scenes as the talented yet somewhat undisplined Belushi. Labelle’s Michaels is front and center the entire time and his performance, along with Rachel Sennott as his wife/head writer Rosie Shuster, anchor the proceedings and are both very strong. In addition you get Elia Hunt as Gilda Radner, Emily Fairn as Laraine Newman, Kim Matula as Jane Curtain, and Lamorne Morris as Garrett Morris.

There are a couple of name actors in the cast, with Defoe getting most of the work as Tebet but there’s a hilarious appearance by J. K. Simmons as a randy Milton Berle. The scene in which he cuts Chase down to size is a corker. Look quickly and you’ll catch Finn Wolfhard as and NBC page trying to give tickets away to the show. Nicholas Braun does amazing work as both Andy Kaufman and Jim Henson. Mathew Rhys is a hoot as George Carlin and Nicholas Pedany does a spot-on imitation of a young Billy Crystal.

Although “Saturday Night” revolves primarily around Lorne Michaels, most every cast member gets a chance to shine. The fact that we don’t really get to know the characters deeply isn’t that much of a problem as the nature of the film is too hectic to perform that task organically. Overall, the behind the scenes antics, problems, and trials of getting one of the most iconic live comedy shows on the air for the first time makes for an entertaining and somewhat enlightening ride! “Saturday Night” is definitely worth spending any night on! 4 Out Of 5 On Kendog’s Barkometer! So Sayeth The Kendog!

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