PLOT: In the ninety minutes before the live airing of the first episode of Saturday Night Live, a young Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle) desperately tries to keep NBC from pulling the plug while dealing with a cast, writers and crew in open rebellion.

REVIEW: Comedy would be very different nowadays if not for Saturday Night Live‘s impact. Most noteworthy comedy film stars of the last four decades emerged from their ranks, and nearly fifty years since its premiere, it remains as vital as ever. Yet, the making of the show itself had become an almost mythological tale, with it a known fact that the young Lorne Michaels had to overcome overwhelming odds to make the show in the first place.

What Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night does is that it distills most of the big challenges Michaels had to overcome into one ninety-minute period. It’s a conceit that initially overwhelms the audience by throwing us into the hectic mix, making this easily Reitman’s most propulsive film. While it’s initially a lot to take in, something interesting happens after about twenty minutes – like Michaels himself, you start to thrive on the chaos. 

However, it should be noted that Reitman and co-screenwriter Gil Kenan assume viewers have more than a little familiarity with the history behind the shows. They don’t stop to explain who guys like Michael O’Donoghue, Tom Davis, and Al Franken are and what they mean to the show. They assume you know. All that makes Saturday Night a movie that’s defiantly for fans of the show, with it almost playing like an adaptation of James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales’s oral history, “Live From New York,” albeit with all the chaos of the first part of the book taking place in just a shade over ninety minutes.

What’s impressive is how effortlessly Reitman manages to cover a lot of ground despite not having much time. It helps that he’s assembled a superb young cast, who were cast more for their ability to channel the energy and vibe of certain SNL folks rather than physical resemblance. Some of the performances are incredibly effective, with Dylan O’Brien a standout as Dan Aykroyd, who seemed like he was an unlikely ladies’ man behind the scenes, carrying out a dalliance with Rosie Shuster (played by Shiva Baby’s Rachel Sennott), who was a writer on the show and married to Michaels at the time.

Much of the drama revolves around the two biggest stars to emerge, Chevy Chase and John Belushi. The two are shown to be at each other’s throats, with Belushi, a mercurial figure who resents being given any direction and refuses to sign his contract. It’s the movie’s depiction of Belushi, as played by Matt Wood, which may prove to be the most controversial, as he comes off as a bit of a drug-addled nightmare, while his comedy genius doesn’t really get conveyed. There are so many stories of Belushi’s hellraising that folks often forget how funny he was.

However, the movie is very effective in depicting Chevy Chase’s rise behind the scenes, with NBC execs loving this handsome charmer, with Willem Dafoe’s David Tebet, a higher-up at NBC telling him, “you’re a handsome, funny gentile – that counts for something.” Back in 1975, that was probably true, and Cory Michael Smith plays him as increasingly cocky, albeit still a team player at this point. He has a great scene where he fights with a visiting Milton Berle (J.K. Simmons in a great cameo) and sees his future – for better or worse.

Despite it depicting so many legends behind the scenes, the movie keeps its focus squarely on Lorne Michaels; with The Fabelmans breakout, Gabriel LaBell expertly catching both his ability to pull together so many wildly unpredictable people and his ability to be cold-blooded – with him icily shutting down a request by Billy Crystal (a dead-on Nicholas Podany) in a memorable scene. Also noteworthy is Cooper Hoffman as Dick Ebersol, one of the younger NBC execs who has Michael’s back – to a point – but also is more of a pragmatic team player. Then there’s Tommy Dewey as the acid-tongued Michael O’Donohue, who goes to war with NBC Standards and Practices, Matthew Rhys as an increasingly furious George Carlin, Lamorne Morris as Garrett Morris, who struggles to find his play in the stacked cast, and Kim Matula as the even-tempered Jane Curtain. Succession’s Nicholas Braun also shows up in dual roles, as both an uncanny Andy Kauffman and Jim Henson. 

For a movie that’s so short, Saturday Night has a lot to unpack in it, as there’s just so much going on at every second. It’s a somewhat stressful movie to watch, but its frenzied energy makes it the perfect big-screen version of the show, and a movie I’m sure most SNL players, both past and present, will praise as being pretty accurate. It’s one of Reitman’s best movies. 

Saturday Night

GREAT

8

-

Viewer Ratings (0 reviews)

Add your rating

1 star 2 stars 3 stars 4 stars 5 stars 6 stars 7 stars 8 stars 9 stars 10 stars

The post Saturday Night Review: The Definitive SNL Movie? appeared first on JoBlo.

Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night has earned rave reviews (including from us) from the festival circuit and is now poised to hit theaters. It opens today in limited release before expanding nationwide on October 11th, which actually marks the 49th anniversary of the first-ever episode of Saturday Night Live. The movie documents the frantic ninety-minute lead-up to the show’s premiere, depicting how it all very nearly went off the rails for a young Lorne Michaels, who’s played here by The Fabelmans star Gabriel LaBelle.

While the film was playing at TIFF (Toronto International Film Fest), we had a chance to sit down and chat with most of the young cast playing all of the various SNL legends. In addition to Gabriel Labelle, we spoke to rising star Rachel Sennott, who plays SNL writer Rose Shuster, Dylan O’Brien, who makes for a surprisingly uncanny Dan Aykroyd, Cory Michael Smith, who is earning raves for his role as Chevy Chase, plus Anna and the Apocalypse star Ella Hunt, who plays Gilda Radner, and the great Lamorne Morris, who plays Garrett Morris (no relation).

Check out the interviews above, and make sure to keep your eyes peeled for the release of Saturday Night. It’s one of the most entertaining movies of the year, and it does a pretty incredible job depicting just how chaotic the behind-the-scenes atmosphere was on SNL before it went on air and how close it came to all falling apart.

Saturday Night has the following synopsis: At 11:30pm on October 11, 1975, a ferocious troupe of young comedians and writers changed television – and culture – forever. Saturday Night is based on the true story of what happened behind the scenes in the 90 minutes leading up to the first broadcast of Saturday Night Live. Full of humor, chaos, and the magic of a revolution that almost wasn’t, we count down the minutes in real time until we hear those famous words…

The post Saturday Night: Interviews with Dylan O’Brien, Rachel Sennott, and More On Playing SNL Legends! appeared first on JoBlo.

Jason Reitman has described Saturday Night as a “comedy thriller” and said that the villain of the movie is time itself. It’s easy to see what he means in the new trailer for the film that depicts the chaotic premiere night of the comedy institution Saturday Night Live. The trailer, newly released by Sony, showcases more of the incredible recreations at Studio 8H, housed at the famous 30 Rockefeller Plaza, along with the cast of the film emulating that ragtag group of soon-to-be over-the-night comedy sensations.

In the new Saturday Night trailer, LaBelle’s Lorne Michaels scrambles to get his show on the road in the face of impending failure. Between battling Rockafella Center security, being at odds with MBC programming higher-up David Tebet (Willem Dafoe), and trying to keep his cast from killing each other, Michaels faces an uphill battle of wills to launch what eventually becomes an institution among television programming.

Saturday Night explores the evening of October 11, 1975, when “a ferocious troupe of young comedians and writers changed television forever. SNL 1975 is the true story of what happened behind the scenes that night in the moments leading up to the first broadcast of NBC‘s Saturday Night Live. It depicts the chaos and magic of a revolution that almost wasn’t, counting down the minutes in real-time to the infamous words, “Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night!”

Jason Reitman and Gil Kenan’s script is inspired by interviews they recorded with living members of the SNL cast, writers, and crew. Anyone who knows anything about Saturday Night Live knows how chaotic and unpredictable the show can be, including breaks in character, last-minute script changes, inexperienced guests, and technical snafus.

Reitman’s Saturday Night trailer features a parade of talent portraying the first batch of SNL cast members, with Dylan O’Brien as Dan Aykroyd, Lamorne Morris as Garrett Morris, Cory Michael Smith as Chevy Chase, Ella Hunt as Gilda Radner, Emily Fairn as Laraine Newman, Kim Matula as Jane Curtin, Matt Wood as John Belushi, and Nicolas Braun as Andy Kaufman and Jim Henson. Other stars include Cooper Hoffman as Dick Ebersol, Rachel Sennott as Rosie Shuster, Matthew Rhys as George Carlin, Jon Batiste as Billy Preston, Finn Wolfhard as an NBC page, Taylor Gray as Al Franken, Nicolas Podany as Billy Crystal, and more.

The post Saturday Night: The new trailer showcases all the behind-the-scenes perils of getting the SNL pilot episode to air appeared first on JoBlo.

Live from Telluride, it’s Saturday Night! Appropriately enough, Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night debuted on, well, Saturday Night at the Telluride Film Festival. For fans of SNL, this is one of the most anticipated films of the year and, judging by the initial reactions, it could now be in the Oscars discussion.

Check out some of the first reactions below:

Accompanying the premiere of Saturday Night was none other than former SNL cast member Bill Murray, who introduced the film alongside director Jason Reitman. “This is some movie that I think is important that someone make his movie. Saturday Night Live was probably the greatest work experience…piece of luck that I ever had. And I met great people and I learned how to work. It’s a hard-working job and when he talks about adrenaline, it’s really…the demand that you work your best, your most attentive…That’s the only thing, you either live or you die every week that way [working on live TV]. It’s told me that I have to live that way every day of my life.”

Murray went on to say that the cast of Saturday Night is the future of the industry, with those who attended the screening also noting just how remarkable the ensemble is:

Before it releases theatrically on October 11th (the 49th anniversary of the debut episode), Saturday Night will also screen at the Toronto International Film Festival, where our own Chris Bumbray will be reviewing it.

Saturday Night chronicles the night of the first episode of SNL (then known by the titular name of the film), which aired on October 11th, 1975. That legendary episode featured some of the most memorable moments in the show’s early history, including a standout opening sketch with John Belushi, Michael O’Donoghue and Chevy Chase, George Carlin serving as host and Andy Kaufman taking the stage for a unique rendition of the Mighty Mouse theme.

All of these individuals – and the key players – are depicted in Saturday Night, which features one heck of an ensemble: Gabriel LaBelle as Lorne Michaels, Cory Michael Smith as Chevy Chase, Dylan O’Brien as Dan Aykroyd, Ella Hunt as Gilda Radner, Rachel Sennott as Rosie Shuster, Matt Wood as John Belushi, Nicholas Braun as both Andy Kaufman and Jim Henson, and so many more.

Will you be checking out Saturday Night in theaters? Do you think it has a shot at any Oscar recognition? Chime in below!

The post Saturday Night gets rave reviews out of Telluride; is it now an Oscar contender? appeared first on JoBlo.

Deadline has just unveiled that the Toronto International Film Festival, or TIFF, has added twenty more titles to their schedule, which brings their lineup of official selections to a total of 278 films. One of the bigger titles to be added is Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night, which depicts the evening of October 11, 1975, when “a ferocious troupe of young comedians and writers changed television forever. It is the true story of what happened behind the scenes that night in the moments leading up to the first broadcast of NBC’s Saturday Night Live.”

Another big feature that will be screened at TIFF is the already-divisive but anticipated new film from Hollywood legend Francis Ford Coppola — Megalopolis. This will be the film’s North American premiere after its debut in Cannes already gave the movie the kind of buzz that people had expected to come from a mind as mad as Coppola’s. The film would also secure a distribution deal from Lionsgate after that premiere.

Twisters’ Daisy Edgar-Jones will also have a new film showcased at TIFF called On Swift Horses, which co-stars Jacob Elordi. Per Deadline, “The Daniel Minahan-directed movie follows a woman and her husband who are about to begin a bright new life, which is upended by the arrival of his brother. She embarks on a secret life, gambling on racehorses and discovering a love she never thought possible.” You can view the complete list of additions below, which also includes a special repeat screening of Damien Chazelle’s breakout film Whiplash.

Gala
Megalopolis
Francis Ford Coppola | USA
North American Premiere

William Tell
Nick Hamm | Italy/United Kingdom
World Premiere
Sales Title

Special Presentations
Babygirl
Halina Reijn | USA
North American Premiere

Dahomey
Mati Diop | Benin/France/Senegal
North American Premier

Hold Your Breath
Karrie Crouse, Will Joines | USA
World Premiere

On Swift Horses
Daniel Minahan | USA
World Premiere
Sales Title

Paul Anka: His Way
John Maggio | USA
World Premiere
Sales Title

Queer
Luca Guadagnino | Italy/USA
North American Premiere
Sales Title

Saturday Night
Jason Reitman – USA
Canadian Premiere

Shell
Max Minghella | USA
World Premiere

The Brutalist
Brady Corbet | United Kingdom
North American Premiere
Sales Title

The Luckiest Man in America
Samir Oliveros | USA
World Premiere
Sales Title

The Room Next Door
Pedro Almodóvar | Spain
North American Premiere

The Salt Path
Marianne Elliott | United Kingdom
World Premiere
Sales Title

Vermiglio
Maura Delpero | Italy/France/Belgium
North American Premiere
Sales Title

Discovery
Village Keeper
Karen Chapman | Canada
World Premiere

You Are Not Alone
Marie-Hélène Viens, Philippe Lupien | Canada
World Premiere

Centrepiece
Bliss (Hemda)
Shemi Zarhin | Israel
International Premiere
Sales Title

Special Events
Double Happiness
Mina Shum | Canada

Whiplash
Damien Chazelle | USA

The post TIFF 2024 adds Saturday Night, Megalopolis, On Swift Horses and more to their screening schedule appeared first on JoBlo.

Live from New York! It’s the Saturday Night trailer! Steel yourselves for a chaotic evening of unpredictability, unprofessionalism, and rampant consumption of sensory-altering substances because Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle) hopes to make miracles happen on the sketch variety show’s opening night.

In Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night trailer, LaBelle’s Lorne Michaels scrambles to get his show on the road in the face of impending failure. Between battling Rockafella Center security, being at odds with MBC programming higher-up David Tebet (Willem Dafoe), and trying to keep his cast from killing each other, Michaels faces an uphill battle of wills to launch what eventually becomes an institution among television programming.

Saturday Night explores the evening of October 11, 1975, when “a ferocious troupe of young comedians and writers changed television forever. SNL 1975 is the true story of what happened behind the scenes that night in the moments leading up to the first broadcast of NBC‘s Saturday Night Live. It depicts the chaos and magic of a revolution that almost wasn’t, counting down the minutes in real-time to the infamous words, “Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night!”

Jason Reitman and Gil Kenan’s script is inspired by interviews they recorded with living members of the SNL cast, writers, and crew. Anyone who knows anything about Saturday Night Live knows how chaotic and unpredictable the show can be, including breaks in character, last-minute script changes, inexperienced guests, and technical snafus.

Reitman’s Saturday Night trailer features a parade of talent portraying the first batch of SNL cast members, with Dylan O’Brien as Dan Aykroyd, Lamorne Morris as Garrett Morris, Cory Michael Smith as Chevy Chase, Ella Hunt as Gilda Radner, Emily Fairn as Laraine Newman, Kim Matula as Jane Curtin, Matt Wood as John Belushi, and Nicolas Braun as Andy Kaufman and Jim Henson. Other stars include Cooper Hoffman as Dick Ebersol, Rachel Sennott as Rosie Shuster, Matthew Rhys as George Carlin, Jon Batiste as Billy Preston, Finn Wolfhard as an NBC page, Taylor Gray as Al Franken, Nicolas Podany as Billy Crystal, and more.

Holy f**k! What a mess that evening must have been. I can’t imagine contending with all the production issues, egos, and negative attitudes of that fateful evening. What do you think about Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night trailer? I’m interested in seeing all the star players of SNL‘s launch portrayed by some of today’s most promising actors. How about you?

The post Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night trailer brings us back to the sketch variety show’s nerve-racking roots appeared first on JoBlo.

Vanity Fair has now given us our first look at the new Jason Reitman film Saturday Night. Saturday Night will take a look at the original premiere show of Saturday Night Live in 1975 right as it would change the plane of television. Reitman says, “The whole movie is the story of people trying to figure out what their identity is on the show. The story we tell is the moment each of these comedians find the way they coalesce as a group, which I think is the reason the show eventually was the success that it is.” Some of the plots covered in the film involve NBC executive David Tebet deciding whether the show is ready for live air and aspiring comic Billy Crystal getting the crushing news of being cut right before the show. Reitman explains, “The way it’s always told is that he took the train back home and got there just in time to tell his family not to watch. This is a movie where the villain is time. It’s like our Sauron. Our Darth Vader is a clock, and you feel its presence at all times. And Billy loses to the clock.”

Jason Reitman directs Saturday Night and co-wrote the screenplay with Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire director Gil Kenan. Saturday Night explores the evening of October 11, 1975, when “a ferocious troupe of young comedians and writers changed television forever. SNL 1975 is the true story of what happened behind the scenes that night in the moments leading up to the first broadcast of NBC’s Saturday Night Live. It depicts the chaos and magic of a revolution that almost wasn’t, counting down the minutes in real-time to the infamous words, ‘Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night!’”

Reitman and Kenan cobble together much of the script by pulling information from 30 original sources. Reitman says, “We interviewed everyone we could find that was alive from opening night. Every living cast member, every living writer, people from the art department, costumes, hair and makeup, NBC pages, members of Billy Preston’s band—I mean, anyone we could find.”

Reitman’s aim was to tell the story from nearly everyone’s viewpoint, not just the stars. “This is about not only the first seven actors, but the writers, the art department, and everybody who came together at the last second to change television. What was so unusual about this show was not only that it was live, but the format was unlike anything anyone had ever seen before. You had sketch comedy, you had two musical guests, you had a live band, you had stand-up comedians, you had Andy Kaufman, you had the Muppets, you had a film by Albert Brooks….”

The post Introducing the Not-Ready-For-Primetime-Players in the first look of Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night appeared first on JoBlo.

The CW is going to be a full seven-day-a-week broadcast network for the first time in its 27-year history. It has been announced that the youth-skewing network, co-owned by WarnerMedia and ViacomCBS, will expand its primetime schedule to include Saturday next season.

This will be the first time that The CW has programmed seven nights a week throughout its entire run, including its time as the WB and UPN. This change will begin with the 2021-22 season and it will see the network air 14 hours of primetime programming a week from 8:00 PM to 10:00 PM, Monday-Sunday. The big four networks typically don't program original programming on Saturdays because that has been largely abandoned in the past two decades for sports, repeats, and the news. 

The CW is aiming to buck that trend by having original programming on Saturday, starting with its first Saturday of primetime programming on October 2, 2021, which will be night one of the iHeartRadio Music Festival. Night two of the festival will air the following night, Sunday, October 3, 2021. The CW is expected to unveil its Saturday lineup along with its fall 2021 schedule the week after next during their upfronts presentation. Don't expect to see shows like The Flash or Riverdale airing on Saturday nights, however. It's more than likely that Saturday will be the home of non-scripted programming and acquisitions that will allow for their ratings threshold to be a bit lower on the night without causing a headache for the network. 

Because The CW got the affiliates' blessing to take Saturday primetime from them, the network will return the stations the Monday-Friday 3:00 PM-4:00 PM afternoon to program their own needs. The CW has been airing syndicated talk shows during that time period and while that could remain the same, that decision will come down to the affiliates thanks to the recent primetime Saturday acquisition. Rob Tuck, EVP, National Sales, The CW, had this to say about the new direction:

"Becoming a seven-night-a-week network has been a long-standing goal for everyone here at The CW, and in an extremely tight broadcast environment, the ability to expand our primetime by two more hours each week is a dynamic shift that will be gladly welcomed by our clients and the agencies. Following the recent industry trend which has seen considerable contraction on a linear basis, The CW will buck that trend this season by adding a new night of original programming, creating new opportunities for us going forward."

What are your thoughts on The CW becoming a seven-night-a-week network?

The post The CW: Network to expand to 7 nights a week for the first time ever appeared first on JoBlo.