Saturday Night

Depicting, though with some liberties in terms of the show's history and production for story purposes, the 90 minutes before Saturday Night Live's debut, Saturday Night takes a look at the absolute chaos that occurred just before the show's live premiere. Jason Reitman's love letter to the long running sketch show, released a year before its 50th anniversary, focuses on Lorne Michaels as he goes through rehearsals, Chevy Chase's ego, NBC's meddling, and disgruntled crew members before the show went live on the night of October 11, 1975. Between Reitman's numerous uses of long unbroken shots with scenes of characters walking as they talk and his and Gil Kenan's quick back and forth dialogue, the film definitely has a touch of Aaron Sorkin. Seeing all the troubles the show went through really makes you appreciate how it all could have gone wrong, between the higher executives having no faith and John Belushi nearly quitting with just a few minutes left. The writing's biggest strength is how it managed to pull off a solution to these problems, many of them thanks to Lorne's quick thinking. Gabriel LaBelle's leads an impressive cast all playing the original cast and crew who all play them to perfection. While a decade younger than when Lorne actually created the show, LaBelle is astounding and captures a combination of the creator's anxiety and belief in what he's creating. Cory Michael Smith captures Chevy's ego to perfection, Matt Wood is perfect as John Belushi, Rachel Sennott as Rosie Shuster is wonderful, and Finn Wolfhard has a fun time as a page trying to get people to see the show. The production design does an amazing job at capturing the look and design of how the show's original stage felt. Nathan Orloff and Shane Reid's editing definitely helps in giving the movie a very Aaron Sorkin-vibe to it. Serving as both the composer and a supporting role playing Billy Preston, the show's first musical guest, Jon Batiste gives the movie a two way in both a great score befitting the era while performing Preston's classic Nothing from Nothing while everyone prepares in the last few minutes before airing. Everyone involved with Saturday Night did a magnificent job in not only making a great movie, but a wonderful love letter to a beloved staple of American television. Over all: 100%

2024 top list so far:

1. Dune: Part 2

2. The Wild Robot

3. Saturday Night

4. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

5. Deadpool & Wolverine

6. Transformers One

7. A Quiet Place: Day One

8. Inside Out 2

9. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

10. The Fall Guy

11. MaXXXine

12. The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare

13. Abigail

14. Monkey Man

15. Late Night with the Devil

16. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire

17. Alien: Romulus

18. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

19. The Book of Clarence

20. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

21. Drive-Away Dolls

22. Joker: Folie à Deux

23. Kung Fu Panda 4

24. Lisa Frankenstein

25. Argylle

26. Mean Girls 2024