Live from New York, it’s… a biopic? Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night falls short of expectations and overdramatizes what the audience already knows. For a fiftieth-anniversary film, this overdramatization makes it feel inauthentic, and quite honestly, disappointing. The film’s audience must already be familiar with the origin of Saturday Night Live, or else they may go in knowing little and come out confused. The idea of an SNL biopic is interesting, to say the least, but whose story is it?
Reitman’s adaptation focuses too much on the Chevy Chase of it all and doesn’t tell the story the public doesn’t know: Lorne’s. Chevy Chase’s history with SNL is at least somewhat well known amongst those who were alive at the time or have spent an afternoon on Wikipedia researching why he left the show. Lorne Michaels’ perspective, however, is much more of a mystery to the general public. He created Saturday Night Live, yes, but how? The Saturday Night trailer seems to promise the final product will tell that story– but it doesn’t. The brief moments in that trailer are almost the entirety of Lorne’s portrayal in the film. The stakes are never established in a way that the audience can relate to. Instead, Lorne is shown uncomfortably mingling with executives to create these stakes.
As far as the plot itself, it is a mediocre and messy story carried by its principal cast. Portraying such iconic and distinct personas can be challenging, but the actors made the task look effortless. The standouts were undoubtedly Cory Michael Smith as Chevy Chase, Matt Wood as John Belushi, and Dylan O’Brien as Dan Aykroyd, who all captured the minute idiosyncrasies of the cast members they were portraying.
From a technical standpoint, everything about the film should work. The classic brown ‘70s aesthetic is aggressive but fitting, and the wardrobe cleverly reflects each of the performers and their personalities. In Lorne’s most stressful moments, the audience is captivated by quick pans and intense close-ups. The thought put into these technical aspects should indicate some sign of life in this film, that it was made with some level of integrity.
However, the signs of the muddled plot and lackluster characters become extremely noticeable throughout, especially in moments where the story veers away from Michaels to focus on the other characters or the show’s production. Despite how much the actors attempt to make do with the material, no amount of razzle-dazzle could mask the incompetency and confusion of the semi-biographical storyline.
Additionally, the exaggeration of historical events for dramatic effect should pay off, but it doesn’t. The relationship between Lorne and his first wife, Rosie Shuster, was effectively over at that time, as was her tryst with Dan Aykroyd. Why leave a romance in that had already fizzled out? It’s untrue and makes the film seem cheap for pandering to the dramatics. Besides, who is this movie for? If it’s for the existing fanbase, don’t make stuff up. If it’s for people unfamiliar with Saturday Night Live, preface it somehow. Don’t try to go straight into the story and then change things around to make a nonexistent portion of your audience happy when the only people genuinely interested in the film already know those details are false.
Saturday Night is an okay movie, but don’t expect it to be good for much more than just that– a Saturday night.