The minute I watched the trailer for Jason Reitman's (then) upcoming Saturday Night, I loved it. Suddenly, it was as if all the people I'd grown up with had been brought back to life. I watched the trailer twice, eyes flitting between all the fantastic, lifelike, 21st-century versions of these people I revered. I thought surely, there's no way the actual movie's gonna be this good, though. I thought most likely, they've stuffed the trailer full of big names and witty rocket-fast dialogue, but the movie itself... Well, the movie itself is somehow even better.
Chronicling the hectic, hilarious, and at times infuriating 90 minutes leading up to the very first episode of Saturday Night Live, Saturday Night is everything I'd hoped for, watching the trailer. And perhaps more. At first, I thought great, they've gone and made a movie tributing all those iconic characters we grew up with. Except then, I started thinking that was wrong. I'm 25. That means John Belushi died eighteen years before I was born and George Carlin died when I was seven. Maybe I meant the people my parents' generation grew up with? But then, why make it now?
Credit: Sony Pictures/Universal Pictures
Then watching, the answer became clear. Because throughout much of the film, there's a looming uncertainty about whether or not they're gonna be allowed on live TV. And maybe for my folks' generation, that would've still been a sort-of-maybe memory. But for kids my age, Saturday Night Live's been a thing for as long as I've been alive. It's kinda like coming along and saying you know, Elizabeth II once worried about a blemish on her face. There's things that exist in the background of your life, at a steady churn, that you take for granted. And maybe you don't notice them, and maybe you think they're the coolest thing to happen, it's still just as strange being reminded that they're actually not nailed to the walls, at all.
It turns out, the background can come off at a moment's notice. And it wasn't put there by God, or whoever else you think might determine the status quo, but by weird, crazy, self-absorbed and self-doubting kids just like you. The staples of your little life, the background and the household names, they're all actually handmade and mom-and-pop-owned. They're real. And they're probably shitting their pants, getting high or trying to get lucky. Just like you are.
[Matt Wood as John Belushi, skating] : I wanna try a triple axel.
[Gabriel LaBelle as Lorne Michaels] : How about a single axel?
[Belushi] : I figure I can either pull off the triple, or die trying.
I must've had huge, spinning plate-eyes from start till the credits were rolling. From minute one, for me, it was a game of who's gonna show up next, and boy, they did not disappoint. Nicholas Braun was masterful, I thought, as Jim Henson (he doubled as the one-of-a-kind Andy Kaufman, but that's a tougher runner-up. For me, Andy's always gonna be Andy, and when he's not Andy, he's gonna be Jim Carrey). Dylan O'Brien as Dan Aykroyd took my breath away - at times, I had to remind myself he wasn't the real Dan. Matt Wood as Belushi - Christ, and the splendid Matthew Rhys as George Carlin.
You can play that game, and with the sheer amount of big names on the roll call, you think that's gonna be your whole movie, but at about 3 minutes in, you've all but stopped playing. You're captured by the dialogue, the fast-pace, the hold-on-to-your-breeches way Gabriel LaBelle commands the screen as Lorne Michaels (at only 22 years old). At one point, one of the characters mentions something about being nostalgic for a moment while you're living it, but for many viewers my age, Saturday Night will make you nostalgic for a moment you never even caught. For trying something that's off-the-wall and that makes no sense. For going for that triple axel, at least once in your life.
It's saying hey, your granny's generation did it, so why shouldn't you at least try? And that's, I think, a message that we need more of at this point in time. I'm not sure it's a movie for everyone. I wouldn't say it's a great movie, no. I'm not sure how exciting it is for people unfamiliar with Saturday Night. I know plenty of kids my age who wouldn't get it, and while it could arguably serve as an introduction to a golden era of comedy, I still think the best introduction to Belushi, Carlin, Aykroyd, Chase, and so many other greats is their actual work. But it's a really fun movie, especially if (like me) you're someone who feels a little out of place on this spinning ball of ours right now.
So if you're not completely unfamiliar with SNL, the world of comedy, or just with what it is to be 20-something and terrified the world's not gonna get you, then it might be worth a watch. :)
