Saturday night cleans up the anarchic early days of SNL

Now a cult comedy TV show Saturday night live – shortened to SNL – will celebrate its 50th anniversary next year. During that time, it became the launching pad for the most popular American comedy talents of the last half century, from John Belushi, Bill Murray and Eddie Murphy to Tina Fey, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Kristen Wiig.

Saturday eveningdirected by Jason Reitman and co-written with Gil Kenan, the events take place on October 11, 1975, the night of SNLpremiere. Because it came out so close to the anniversary, and because Reitman is the son of Ivan Reitman, a director whose early films such as Animal House, Stripes and the original Ghostbusters actors first made famous by the series – I was worried that this new film would just be hagiography.

Inevitably, there is a reverent caution at the heart of the script, which means Saturday evening never breaks into the moments of anarchic danger that characterized the show’s early years, including the work of Belushi, Andy Kaufman and Gilda Radner. However, within the respectable parameters it sets for itself, the film is solid. It is briskly directed and has an outstanding cast.

The biggest advantage of the script is that the story unfolds in real time. We are familiar with the preparation and emergency situations that occur immediately before the premiere of the show. The structure has a built-in momentum, which is further supported by the choice to shoot in vérité style close-up.

Our main point of view is Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle), who, along with his then-wife Rosie Schuster (Rachel Sennott), was one of the key creators SNL. Labelle is great in this role. As well as his excellent work with Steven Spielberg Fablementhere’s an element of youthful awkwardness to his portrayal, but we’re never led to believe he’s naïve. The hidden insight in his performance reveals the determination of creative and entrepreneurial will.

To give the script some narrative drive, Kenan and Reitman present the show’s debut as part of the negotiations the network heads are having with their star performer, Johnny Carson. We never see Carson except in television footage, but he represents an older generation of comedy stylistically and politically opposed to the new comedians championed by Michaels and Schuster.

The plot here is not invented, the managers of NBC are reduced to stereotypes of venal corporate power. Even Willem Dafoe, who plays the man who allegedly gave away SNL green light, can’t do much with the role. He is as empty a presence as any other “suit”. Fortunately for the filmmakers, they have JC Simmons as Milton Berle, who is also a member of the old guard. He plays Burl with an unassuming gleeful slickness, revealing the old comedian’s classy sexism and unfriendly arrogance, but also giving us a glimpse of his steely fortitude.

This is an outstanding performance that goes beyond the script. As Burl takes on the new rooster, Chevy Chase (Corey Michael Smith), we can imagine the fierce struggle it must have taken for the younger Burl to get out of the borscht belt and fight for that face of his on network television. We understand that his dislike of young upstarts may not be just generational.

The cast works hard to animate the real-life characters they play. Michael Smith as Chase, Dylan O’Brien as Dan Aykroyd, and Kim Matula as Jane Curtin find moments that transcend imitation. Nicholas Brown also successfully captures Andy Kaufman’s otherworldly weirdness. He is less successful as the troubled Jim Henson, but that is because the role is ill-conceived. Henson stars as a neurotic flower child. I waited for the moment when his doll-like brilliance would reveal itself, but it never came. Without the reward for his giddiness, the role is superfluous, as is the arrogance of Brown, who plays both roles.

The film tries to deal with the misogyny and racism of the mid-70s. This is where the reverent tone of the script is most clearly inadequate. The women are secondary, only Curtin and Schuster are given any importance. Reitman’s most disappointing mistake is that he effectively left Gilda Radner out of the story. Like Kaufman, Radner’s comic abilities were sui generis, seemingly supernatural. The film doesn’t give us any insight into her talent or her struggle to be taken seriously. Ella Hunt’s performance leaves no trace, and this is because the character is not in the text.

Lamorne Morris plays Garrett Morris, the only black member of the original ensemble. The image has a sly and powerful undertone, suggesting that the theatrically trained Morris is uncomfortable with predominantly African-American performers SNLhouse band like he did with the white comedians. We have the feeling of a man who is constantly on guard, knowing that he is being watched and judged everywhere.

The most electric scenes in Saturday evening occur as we see the performers reenacting moments of the opening itself. Warming up the audience with his powerful baritone, Morris fronts the band and sings a song about the pleasure of killing a “white”. His joy is ecstatic.

Just as exciting and just as dangerous is the recreation of the sketch, where female performers play construction site workers who wolf-whistle and sexually assault Dan Aykroyd. I didn’t grow up watching Saturday night livebut I remember that scene. O’Brien conveys the discomfort I saw in a young Aykroyd wearing tight denim shorts. The cast also conveys the delight of female comedians finally turning the tables. The menacing urgency of this sketch arose from the pleasure the women expressed in sexualizing the young performer. The actors and directors make us feel this threat.

In those last moments Saturday evening we get a sense of John Belushi’s power as a comic. Matt Wood bears an uncanny resemblance to the actor, but for most of the film he is unable to animate the role. Belushi’s prodigious comedic talent hinged on inviting the audience in on the joke while forcing us to step back from his indignation with our admiration. Saturday evening largely destroys Belushi, stripping him of his hostility and fastidiously ignoring the tragic importance of drug use to his art.

I often acted in Jason Reitman’s film – Thank you for smoking or Up in the airto say – I wish I liked it more. He is drawn to controversial or morally ambivalent characters, but his films and screenplays consciously avoid ambiguity and subtext. The tense consistency of his direction is part of his taming of his characters.

This smoothing of contradictions is still relevant Saturday evening. However, we see enough of the ragged, rebellious comedy of the performers to understand why Saturday night live should have been an electric shock to audiences in 1975. The direction itself is reminiscent of later television work, particularly that of Aaron Sorkin, and the editing in this film is more kinetic than in Reitman’s previous films. That energy suits the story, as does Reitman and his cinematographer Eric Stillberg’s choice to shoot in 16mm. The graininess is a nod to the 70s and independent American cinema of the period, and this further emphasizes the feeling that SNL comedians were part of a new counterculture generation that was finally coming to power.

Saturday evening pleases I don’t mean that word as a disparagement. The film is modest, enjoyable and achieves its goal of honoring the legacy Saturday night live. But when he came home, he put it on stripsthat the 1981 work of Reitman Sr. strips is less coherent and less consistent than Saturday evening and the last half hour is an aimless, boring mess. Yet again, I found myself laughing out loud at the silly antics of young, stoned Bill Murray as a foul-mouthed and lewd army recruit. Those early scenes still feel dirty. Saturday evening fun but too clean. I don’t think I’ve ever said this about a movie before: I think it should be more dope.

Saturday evening Opens in cinemas of the country on October 31.

ART DIARY

LITERATURE Writer’s Festival “Blue Mountain”.

Locations nationwide Darug and Gundungurra/KatoombaNovember 1-3

EXHIBITION Tennant Creek Brio: Juparnta Ngattu Minjinypa Iconocrisis

Australian Center for Contemporary ArtNaarm/Melbourne, until November 17

COMEDY The end of the wharf as we know it

Canberra TheatreNgambri, until November 2

CULTURE OzAsia Festival

Venues across the Kaurna/Adelaide countryuntil November 10

DANCE Facet

Heath Ledger TheaterWhadjuk Noongar Country/Perth, 31 October – 2 November

LAST CHANCE

VISUAL ART Lands of Light: Lloyd Rees and Tasmania

Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallerynipaluna/Hobart, until 27 October

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