Review: Saturday Night

I saw Saturday Night twice, once in theatres (missed the first 10 minutes) and once at home. 

Now before we get into the movie, let's briefly talk about Saturday Night Live. I grew up watching SNL with my dad but I stopped watching it in 2020 because I found the Zoom Call setup (Covid) a little cringeworthy. 

This movie also really highlighted how the quality of writing has gone downhill over the years. What was originally meant to be a quirky, indie talent show written by the youth for the youth has kind of sold out and lost touch with its audience. In the past decade, especially the show has focused too much on politics. I don't mean this to say that I think it's wrong to discuss politics or make fun of them, and some of the bits I did like. It just got to the point where it felt like they kept making the exact same jokes- I mean really, how many times can you watch Alec Baldwin make the exact same Trump impression with the exact same jokes and not get bored? I think the writers have grown somewhat out of touch with their audience and have gotten too used to sticking to the same bits that "work" rather than trying something new. 

Alright on to the movie. 

I really enjoyed the movie for a multitude of reasons, as a 1970s enthusiast, as a film nerd, as a drama kid and as an SNL fan.

I love 70s aesthetics and I think the movie got it really spot on. The costume design never feels kitschy 70s, like if they just picked up all the costumes from Party City, it feels like stuff people actually wore. 

I really liked how it was filmed, you could feel the stress and the tension build as you were watching. I don't know how they did this, but a lot of it felt like it was filmed in one long shot (a la 1917) even though there were obvious cuts and transitions. 

I also found the movie strangely relatable as it reminded me of the many opening nights I've survived as a backstage crew member and as an actress. Although the show the characters were putting on was one million times larger than any high school play I've participated in, it still breathed an air of nostalgia and familiarity into me. 

In the end, I also loved seeing what older SNL looked like. Although I didn't recognize any of the characters besides Lorne, I still found all the characters to be well-written and unique which can be particularly challenging with such a large ensemble cast. My favourites were Lorne, Jim Henson, Belushi and Neil.

The only bad thing I have to say is that I found the plot with David Tebet (played by Willem Dafoe) to be kind of confusing. He appears to be on Lorne's side at the start and his enemy as the movie progresses but it wasn't done in a clear plot twist (unless that was their sad attempt at one) and really just ended up with me having to put it together on my own through guesswork and context clues. 

Overall, I really liked it- honestly maybe even loved it. It scratched a particular itch in my brain that I didn't even know I had. 9.5/10