Walking out of the theater after seeing the movie, “Saturday Night,” and feeling the cool night breeze on my skin, I had one thought. How the heck am I going to review this?
I mean this in the best way possible. To start off, “Saturday Night” is a very good movie. It follows the story of the very first episode of “Saturday Night Live,” and the challenges faced by Lorne Michaels (Gabriel Labelle) as he attempts to get his show to air while also attempting to wrangle a wild cast of eccentric comedians. Fine, yeah, easy.
The writing is good, and you can really feel the stress and emotion from every character. The jokes are fantastic. The main problem with writing this review is that watching it is like watching a fever dream recorded and played back at twice the speed. It’s shot in a style that makes it feel like the entire movie is just one long shot, but it’s not. It’s extremely fast, and in one scene there’s at least ten other things to notice besides just what’s happening in front of you. The stress felt by the characters is already apparent through their dialogue and actions, but the speed of the movie really makes you feel that stress.
As the story progresses, high intensity, climatic moments are often interrupted by a black screen with a time displayed on it showing the minutes progressing as the show inches ever closer to 11:30. Those are the only moments you are given to catch your breath before it moves on to the next bit of wonderful chaos.
That’s not to say it’s all quick and crazy though. During emotional moments, it slows down, and the room gets quiet. You’re given the opportunity to feel what the characters are feeling, like despair, fear, panic. Tension becomes palpable. It’s truly brilliant what they’ve done with the filmmaking when it comes to this movie. That alone is reason enough to see it. I’m going to get a little crazy here and say something that you wouldn’t normally expect from a reviewer, but the only way to know if this movie is good is to go see it yourself.
I enjoyed “Saturday Night” a lot. I thought the jokes were funny, the cast was great, and the emotional core was brilliant. But I know that other reviewers vehemently disagree with me. They say that the jokes were flat, and the cast was stiff. But one of the main complaints I’ve seen is that the movie is too fast, and I can understand that. So I’m going to say that if you want to know if the movie is good, go see it yourself. Some people will enjoy the quick pace and the humor, some people won’t. I did, and give this movie a 9/10.