It is 10pm on October 11th, 1975. Precisely ninety minutes before the first ever episode of Saturday Night Live. Watch as Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle) wrangles some of the greatest comedians to ever perform in amongst a cavalcade of back stage chaos to birth a show that this year celebrates its fiftieth anniversary. 

Saturday Night is a film whose entire goal is to try and capture the manic energy and chaos that it took to create a show that for its time was revolutionary and funny. It is entirely successful at capturing the chaos. It is much less successful at inspiring laughs. 

Just like the show it is celebrating, Saturday Night gives us a series of set pieces and skits. Lighting rigs collapsing during rehearsal, John Belushi (Matt Wood) not signing his contract, Jim Henson (Nicholas Braun, who also plays Andy Kaufman) being upset by what people are doing to his muppets, Milton Berle (J.K. Simmons) hitting on Chevy Chase’s (Cory Michael Smith) fiancée. The list is endless and the manner in which they are constantly thrown at you exhausting. 

Rather than ever finding any of the sketches or jokes particularly amusing I found myself constantly establishing who I was watching. There is a very real sense of, “which up and coming current actor is portraying which mega comedy star of yesteryear” as you watch. Something I found very distracting. Some of the actors look like who they are portraying, most nail their personality or foibles well. The stand out performers are Nicholas Braun who plays both Jim Henson and Andy Kaufman, Dylan O’Brien who portrays Dan Ackroyd and Cory Michael Smith who delivers a Chevy Chase that already is showing signs of the narcissism that would sour his career. 

As to the theme running through the film about “what Saturday Night Live is”? The answer is a fairly nebulous balancing act of chaos and rebellion mixed with structure and scripts. Something that often delivers the sort of mixed returns that we see in this film. 

A hit and miss affair that is probably going to be more interesting for people who have an affinity with this show at this time.