This frantic, chaotic amalgam shows how Lorne Michaels held on by his fingernails to get the the first SNL show in front of America in 1975. Like the sketches on SNL itself, sometimes the creative comedy bits hit the mark, and sometimes they bomb.
The action revolves around the nerve wracking countdown to getting the first Saturday Night on the air. It’s 10 pm, decision time with 90 minutes of intense pressure as young performers and writers are about to change the world of comedy on TV. They become legends stretching broadcast standards to the limit right under NBC exec noses.
Director/Writer Jason Reitman and co-writer Gil Kenan chose to concentrate on a few cast members and pretty much ignored others who were essential to that show. Garrett Morris (LaMorene Morris) is given inordinate screen time while Gilda Radner (Ellen Hunt), Jane Curtin (Kim Matula) and Laraine Newman (Emily Fair) are hardly identified. The John Belushi (Matt Wood) story line doesn’t do enough to show his insane comedic chops. Instead it centers on Belushi’s dislike of having wear the now famous bee costume, leaving the set to go ice skating on the rink in Rockefeller Plaza still trying to get him to sign his contract to appear on the show.
Lorne Michaels, who was really 31 at the time, is played by Gabrielle LaBelle who appears only about 20 in this film. He was the creator who gathered the most talented young comedians at the time. But once he got them together, he wasn’t sure what to do with them! Not many women, other than talent or assistants, are showcased except for Michael’s wife Rosie, who was a co-writer and producer. She seemed the only one to have it all together. We wanted more about her.
Reitman takes license with several other facts about that first time out and has been called on it. But he does direct the visual elements with the same frenetic energy present that first night, while taking never-ending escape time through the studios and offices of 30 Rock. He’s constantly putting out fires, dealing with the corporate “grown-ups” and frustratingly trying to arrange and rearrange the myriad of notes with skit names on the story board in time for air. Biggest problem? There is just too much of everything to stuff into an hour and a half and in this film. Reitman bounces from character to character using a lot of hand held shots to make it look more candid but scenes consistently feel incomplete.
There are so many characters included in this film, it’s hard to keep track. Big TV comedy icons of the era, Milton Berle (J. K. Simmons) and Johnny Carson have a presence, but they’re not treated with much love or respect in this film. They were the bad guys representing the establishment. Berle, boisterous and lewd, and Carson is on the phone fighting over his contract putting down Chevy Chase in the process. Willem Dafoe is a demanding NBC exec expecting, no, rooting for the show to fail.
But thanks to unlikely savior, Andy Kaufman,(Nicholas Braun) who used the commitment to his totally wacky brand of comedy, he becomes a star and the show goes on, on time. Dan Aykroyd (Dylan O’Brien) is another true talent who could have been shown off better, as well as Chevy Chase (Cory Michael Smith) who became the biggest star at the at show’s start. There were so many other comedians who showed up, but frustrated by Lorne’s indecision, walked off. They included Billy Crystal and George Carlin.
It’s tense watching the clock tick from the moment you see the NBC Page,(Finn Wolfhard) in front of the building passing out fliers to get an audience, to the very end of creation of this first night. Watching the miraculous turn from frantic chaos that launched a 50 year run is more frustrating than satisfying, unless you fondly remember the first cast that launched Lorne Michaels into show biz history with, “Live from New York, It’s Saturday Night!”
Sony/Columbia Pictures 1 hour 49 minutes R
