‘Saturday Night’: A Labor of Love

Jason Reitman’s next installment in a varied filmography spanning from the Academy Award-winning Juno to the blockbuster sequel Ghostbusters: Afterlife comes in the form of Saturday Night, a docu-drama comedy covering the 90 minutes before the first episode of Saturday Night Live went on air. With an all-star ensemble cast, a great score and grainy cinematography that perfectly emulates the 1970s, Saturday Night is fun romp that falls just short of greatness. Saturday Night is set in real-time as Lorne Michaels, played by Gabriel LaBelle, tries to put together the pieces of a show the network is sure will fail. We follow Michaels as sets collapse, crew members quit and studio executives try to shut the whole thing down. While this seems like an expert setup to a chaotic comedy, Saturday Night fails to convince the viewer that things are really as haphazard as they seem.