“Saturday Night” Movie in theaters Spoilers*

we went to see this today at a matinee at Alamo Drafthouse
me, my wife and my 25 year old son

Fish and Chips are excellent, Carnivore Pizza on cauliflower crust was on point

me and my wife are not old enough to have watched SNL in the 70s, I go back to the mid80s era. My son ignores the current SNL but was a fan of the Bill Hader era. Through reruns and youtube I know the SNL dynamics and history very well

the movie is sort of a Aaron Sorkin meets uncut gems style of witty fast talking and walking with long steady cam shots and frenetic anxiety enducing transitions that eventually become exhausting to the viewer

the casting was pretty good except for two glaring outliers, the Lorne Michaels character was far too young (22) to play Michaels (30) in 1975. The guy (20 yr/o) who played NBC Producer Dick Ebersol (28) in 1975 was also way too young to be even remotely believable. It was weirdly distracting

Aykroyd, Belushi, Chase, Morris were well cast and well played to a degree but Belushi was portrayed as weirdly aspergerish or something. Like some kind of misunderstood genius when he really was a well known partyer and instigator.

Chase is foreshadowed in a scene by writer SNL Herb Sargent as a future arrogant arse that basically brings the movie to a screeching halt but so much of his character actions in the movie is actually helpful to the show.

the women in the cast are portrayed as goofy giggly school girls and garrett morris continually asks “why am I really here?” to mostly blank responses.

the michael o’donoghue character steals the movie a couple of times

drugs are a minor plot point, george carlin’s drug use is touched on in a scene. carlin admitted in an interview he was so high on coke at the time he doesnt remember actually hosting the show

The story itself was paint by numbers, I realize it isnt a documentary but the artistic license they took was really egregious in two glaring storylines

1. milton berle played amazingly by JK Simmons is a major presence in the movie on opening night but in reality he was not there and his presence in the movie was reflective of his disastrous hosting of SNL Season 4 Ep 17

2. NBC Exec David Tebet played by willem dafoe is the token bad guy in a suit portrayed as being against SNL and somewhat Michaels but in reality he was a proponent of the show because SNL was a pet project of NBC President Herb Schlosser to appeal to the 18-34 demographic. Michaels was portrayed as a novice but he had variety comedy show specials on CBC that were popular in canada

there is a relatively minor reference and scenes with andy kaufman and the jim henson storyline is really weird. nicholas braun plays both characters, in another strange casting choice. Henson asks where the script is for the muppets like they are unwelcome after thought, but if you watch the real SNL 1.1 there is an elaborate stage set and long sketch featuring the puppets that is overlooked in the movie.

I would recommend this one for watching at home on a streaming site, unless you just want to go to the movies