Saturday Night Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Saturday Night Blu-ray Movie Review

"The writers on the 17th floor tied a belt around Big Bird's neck and hung him from my door."

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown December 27, 2024

October 11, 1975. Chaos. Delirium. Pageantry. Hilarity. Insanity and insecurity. A circus of Barnum and Bailey proportions. This is Lorne Michaels' attempt to bring a fresh new comedy revolution dubbed Saturday Night to the small screen. Fifty years later its inevitable success wasn't so inevitable. A young producer, young cast of relative unknowns, a cantankerous crew, a late-night time slot, immense executive pressure, the competitive power of cheaper Johnny Carson reruns, and a countdown to a broadcast that may or may not even go live... all with the intensity and stream-of-conscious filmmaking of a Birdman-in-the-wings, director/co-writer Jason Reitman's nearly real-time retelling of the events leading up to 11:30 on the 11th is riveting, compelling and... messy? No, can't be. It's convincing, funny, kinetic and... a bit of a slog? No, impossible. The right hands, the right cast, the right everything. What could go wrong. Not much and, at the same time, a whole lot of everything. Oscar contended or overhyped multi-figure biopic? You be the judge. I'm still processing the sheer, overwhelming madness of it all.

Michaels vs. Chase

With very little in the way of traditional plot, Saturday Night is more a parade of characters and head-on collision of subplots than anything more substantive. Gabriel LaBelle masterfully fills the shoes of future mega-producer Lorne Michaels, here a veritable young pup tasked with herding cats; the cats being a cast of ids and egos furiously vying for fame, fortune and industry legitimacy. Arrogant blowhard Chevy Chase (a dead-on Cory Michael Smith). Nice guy everyman Dan Aykroyd (scene stealer Dylan O'Brien). Fish out of water Garrett Morris (an excellent Lamorne Morris). Neurotic newcomer Laraine Newman (a sweet Emily Fairn). Lady-of-the-people and comedienne extraordinaire Gilda Radner (force of nature Ella Hunt). Ball of rage, alcohol and drugs John Belushi (Matt Wood, killing it in every scene he appears). And the cool, collected Jane Curtin (a perfectly cast Kim Matula). As Michaels races to pull off the impossible, a small crowd gathers and fills the hallways; actors, comedians, executives, stage hands, carpenters, technicians, performers of all stripes, old Hollywood legends and TV gods, NBC pages and more. The show must go on no matter what comes, but will it even go on?

The mother of NBC's new ragtag gang is Michaels' wife Rosie Shuster (Rachel Sennott), while comedy writer Michael O'Donoghue (Tommy Dewey) and once-and-future executive Dick Ebersol (Cooper Hoffman) tug at Lorne from opposite ends of a broad spectrum of extremes. Moreover, Reitman rolls out the red carpet for a who's who of character actors playing would-be cameos, among them Nicholas Braun as both Andy Kaufman and Jim Henson, Taylor Gray as Al Franken, Mcabe Gregg as Tom Davis, Corinne Britti as Valri Bromfield, Nicholas Podany as Billy Crystal, Kirsty Woodward as Audrey Dickman, Robert Wuhl as director Dave Wilson, Kaia Gerber as Chase's girlfriend Jacqueline Carlin, Catherine Curtin as Joan Carbunkle, Jon Batiste as Billy Preston, Brian Welch as Don Pardo, Willem Dafoe as David Tebet, Paul Rust as Paul Shaffer, Tracy Letts as Herb Sargent, Matthew Rhys as George Carlin, Naomi McPherson as Janis Ian, J. K. Simmons as literal swinging dick Milton Berle, Brad Garrett as Borscht Belt, and dozens more.

What begins as uncontainable chaos settles into a chaotic run towards 11:30. But all that chaos threatens to register as mere noise after an hour of bangs, whoops and cackles. The SNL cast is a diverse bunch, and there are moments of poignancy throughout the night (particularly for Morris, one of the only characters with an arc). The actors portraying them are clearly having a blast but it's all hoops and hollers; less anxiety and more eruptive hijinks. It's meant to be their defense mechanisms come out to play, but it hits more like uncontrolled juvenile antics than more layered dynamics. It all puts a ding in the third act as well. Everything suddenly comes together a touch too suddenly and serenely. With madness ruling the studio until the 11th hour, the jarring arrival of sentiment and hidden professionalism feels more like necessary screenwriting than honest storytelling. The same goes for Wood's enigmatic Belushi, whose change of heart after contract hesitance and a storm-off to an ice skating rink doesn't ring true. Reitman and co-writer Gil Kenan admit that this isn't a whole-truth-and-nothing-but-the-truth account of a single night, combing anecdotes from the first several episodes of SNL into the premiere's prepping, but the no-harm, no-foul approach can be a mixed bag.

Still, it's hard to walk away disappointed with Saturday Night. The cast doesn't lean on impressions but the resemblance, tone and tenor, accents and mannerisms are all there. LaBelle's Lorne doesn't quite have the long stuffy drawl he would later become known for, but he grabs hold of just enough to make the young producer convincing. Likewise, Smith delivers Chevy Chase to us, wrapped up in a dickish bow. O'Brien is Dan Aykroyd. Lamorne Morris may as well be Garrett Morris, even though sharing a last name is a pure coincidence. The two are completely unrelated. And the underutilized Matula may as well be the second coming of Jane Curtin (... wait, is Jane Curtin still alive? Google to the rescue! Thank the comedy maker, she is.) That's without even talking about the likes of Simmons' dead-ringer Burle, Braun's dual roles, and Rhys' George Carlin, which may as well be resurrections of the dead. There's punch to the comedy, enough staging of classic sketches (even if it's only through rehearsals) and plenty of strained nerves and sweat stains. Is it utter insanity? You bet. And it mostly works by film's end, sticking a tough landing that rolls credits at the perfect moment.

Saturday Night Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Dark, grimy and dingy, Saturday Night tends to forgo the stage lights in favor of smoky rooms and littered hallways. But the stark trappings are perfectly suited to the chaos that unfolds, as is Sony's terrific 1080p/AVC-encoded video transfer. Faithful to Reitman and cinematographer Eric Steelberg's every intention, the oh so filmic presentation is reserved in terms of primary vibrancy and palette punch but heavy on crisp detailing, satisfying contrast, deep black levels and a healthy veneer of grain. Edges are clean and sharply defined, despite some artistic softness here and there, and fine textures are revealing. Delineation is flawless too, allowing viewers to glimpse all the goings-on in the shadows: writer's pow wows, producer arguments, laborer disputes, actor antics et al. And without any significant banding or blocking of note, the encode holds its own without wavering. Saturday Night borders on too dim at times but never crosses the line, instead delivering an excellent picture worthy of the film's moxie.

Saturday Night Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Saturday Night's sound design prizes realism above all else and Sony's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track manages the goods with effortless ease. Voices overlap and interrupt one another constantly, but the central dialogue always rises and fades at just the right moments, drawing the ear to exactly what it's meant to hear without burying everything else buzzing in the soundscape. Prioritization is spot on, dynamics are tight and exciting, and LFE support lends plenty of heft to the experience. Likewise, the rear speakers are full of activity, creating a soundfield that may as well be Studio 8h on October 11, 1975. Directional effects are accurately placed, channel pans are silky smooth, and all the chaos that inhabits the soundfield is engaging and immersive. I was thoroughly pleased.

Saturday Night Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Filmmaker Audio Commentary - Director/co-writer Jason Reitman

• The Making of the Movie of the Show that Almost Never Made It (HD, 16 minutes) - A featurette with a title that seems longer than its relatively short runtime, this decent sliver of behind-the-scenes documenting is comprehensive, sure. But it also skips a lot of intriguing bits to cram everything in. This is one where I definitely felt the sting of disappointment. No feature-length production doc. No full first episode of SNL. No breadth or depth to the supplemental package beyond Reitman's commentary.

• The Look of Saturday Night (HD, 2 minutes) - A cinematography quickie.

• Super 8 from Studio 8h (HD, 5 minutes) - Home movies from the set.

• Creating Comedy Icons (HD, 11 minutes) - Short featurettes on creating the cast, including Chevy Chase, Gilda Radner, John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Jane Curtain, Garrett Morris and Laraine Newman.

• John Batiste: Scoring Live (HD, 1 minute) - The challenge of music on the fly.

• Sony Previews (HD)

Saturday Night Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Saturday Night may be a tad too chaotic for its own good, but the movie remains a strong contender in a year of excellent films. Sony also serves up a striking video presentation, immersive DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track, and a few solid extras for the movie's Blu-ray release. Recommended.