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What Does ‘Saturday Night’ Think ‘Saturday Night Live’ Is About?
With its dizzying countdown-to-showtime structure, Jason Reitman's film won’t come out and say. But that’s what makes the movie…live.
When I first heard about the premise of Jason Reitman ’s “ Saturday Night ” — the entire film takes place in the 90 minutes leading up to the late-night comedy landmark’s first episode in 1975 — I confess that I found the idea to be a head-scratcher. If, like me, you grew up with “Saturday Night Live” and were immersed in the early days of it, there’s an irresistible amusement to seeing everyone associated with the show turned into a dramatic character, and to checking off those who ring true and those who don’t — in other words, assessing what Reitman nailed and what he didn’t get quite right. He could easily have made a film like the one I first envisioned — a meticulous docudrama that spelled out the places “Saturday Night” descended from (the National Lampoon, the Second City troupes of Chicago and Toronto), how it emerged from the drug culture, from feminism, from the whole warped put-on snark of the counterculture.
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