Jason Reitman's Uneven 'SNL' Chronicle

It used to be called a “high concept” film, when Saturday night live was the hottest thing on television. Make a movie about the origins of that late-night comedy show, but not in a span of weeks or months, but just in the 90 minutes before the first episode aired in October 1975. We follow the stresses of the show's creators and watch the stars rehearse their sketches while the musicians rehearse and NBC executives fret. Director Jason Reitman has helmed a number of memorable comedy films (Thanks for smoking, Juno, In the air), and we're curious to see how he and co-writer Gil Kenan bring the concept to life.

We approach the film with high expectations, but only a few of them are realized. The cast works hard and pulls off some bizarre moments, but too many riffs fall flat. Maybe there's too many characters for a 90- or 95-minute film, or maybe it's impossible to sustain the irreverent humor that the show itself sometimes struggled to maintain. Those who remember the excitement of SNLFirst-years will want to recapture this groundbreaking moment in TV history, but younger viewers may not find enough entertainment or curiosity.

The film wisely chooses to focus on the show's creator, Lorne Michaels, played with energy and just the right amount of bewilderment by Gabriel LaBelle, who played Steven Spielberg's alter ego in The Fabelmans. The talented Rachel Sennott plays Rosie Shuster, who was married to Michaels at the time and contributed to many of the sketches in the show's early years. Unfortunately, her part isn't as fully developed as it could be.

This also applies to the actors cast as the show's stars during that first season. Some of them bear a strong physical resemblance to the comics they play, while others are not so suitable. Cory Michael Smith captures the charm of Chevy Chase, and Dylan O'Brien gives a vivid performance as Dan Aykroyd. The directors didn't seem to know how to handle John Belushi, which leaves Matt Wood in a bind. On the other hand, Lamorne Morris gives a brilliant performance as Garrett Morris, the only black actor in the original cast. The women in the cast, Gilda Radner, Laraine Newman, and Jane Curtin, are treated with little consideration.

Some of the cast's more familiar faces make the strongest impression. Willem Dafoe plays a network executive wary of the appeal of such an irreverent, youth-oriented show, bringing his usual authority and a note of unmistakable wisdom to the kids in the room. A scene in which Michaels and the cast must give a speech to visiting executives from around the country makes a vivid point about showbiz history: There isn't a single woman in the room. The only female executive we see is a network censor who is baffled by the show's sometimes vulgar humor.

JK Simmons also has a couple of superb scenes playing Milton Berle, once the king of TV comedy, who visits the SNL set. (Did it really happen? Probably unlikely.) Berle can’t suppress his resentment at the idea of ​​his brand of comedy being supplanted by this group of young upstarts. (There’s even a joke about Berle’s well-known physical prowess.) Another character from another generation, Johnny Carson, is also threatened by these newcomers to late-night television, and we hear him in an angry phone call yelling at Michaels for trying to undermine him.

The film is smoothly edited, but there is a problem with the sound mixing. At times the music is so loud that it drowns out the dialogue we want to hear. Perhaps Reitman wanted to indulge his composer, Jon Batiste, who also appears on camera as Billy Preston, one of the SNLThe first musical guests of. Or maybe it was a glitch. I asked two other people at the screening who had trouble hearing some of the dialogue. Since this was the very first screening, perhaps it’s not too late to make some adjustments in this department. After all, in a film that celebrates the effervescence of sketch comedy, you want to hear the jokes. That’s just one reason why this film, so fresh and enterprising in many moments, ultimately disappoints.