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Chris Gore and Alan Ng review the movie "Saturday Night". Playing October 11th in theaters.
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Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:03
let's talk about Saturday
0:05
night this is a film about well it's
0:08
about Lauren Michaels and it's about the
0:11
Airing of the first episode of Saturday
0:15
night which then became to be known as
0:18
Saturday Night Live uh this movie is
0:21
directed by Jason wman it is a it takes
0:25
place 90 minutes before the first
0:28
episode goes live
0:30
it features uh young actors that play uh
0:35
the young cast Chevy Chase uh Dan akroy
0:39
Garrett Morris Jane curtain uh just all
0:44
your favorites from the first season the
0:47
first episode of SNL uh Lauren Michaels
0:50
is the lead character and it is a
0:53
frenetic energy field um where the the
0:56
camera is following Lauren Michaels and
0:59
and that will follow Lauren Michaels
1:00
then I'll follow another character the
1:02
camera's always moving and it really
1:04
captures that intensity of a a show
1:09
about to go live in front of a a
1:11
national audience right before it goes
1:14
and the big conflict will they run it
1:17
live or they just run a tape and not do
1:20
the show
1:22
um so I'm not sure how much of this is
1:26
real we see a young John balushi who has
1:29
not not signed his contract so I'm
1:31
actually not sure how many of the
1:33
storylines um are real or from anecdotes
1:36
or whatever I'm sure that most of this
1:39
is fictionalized and then based on some
1:42
things in fact I know for for a fact
1:44
that the light falling and almost
1:47
hurting someone that did happen that did
1:50
happen um before the first episode so
1:53
that is actually based in fact
1:55
everything else I actually do not know
1:57
but I know some of the lore and stories
1:59
about SNL because I have watched this
2:02
from the beginning I was a little kid
2:05
and I used to try to stay up late on
2:09
Saturdays I mean I was a little kid to
2:11
watch this show it was legendary it was
2:15
did you see it the commercial parodies
2:18
hilarious things like Mr Bill you know
2:21
um and I know I've watched well I
2:24
watched SNL from the beginning and then
2:27
probably stopped around 206
2:30
2017 when it became not funny but
2:33
previous to that never missed
2:36
SNL
2:38
and this is so much energy so
2:43
fun and uh the actor who plays a young
2:47
Lauren Michaels Gabriel leel from the
2:49
the faban so good because he's everyone
2:53
is Young and fresh-faced why would you
2:56
give a bunch of kids in their 20s a
2:59
national plat platform to do sketch
3:01
comedy is a crazy idea and they were
3:05
allowed so much Freedom there there's
3:08
and there's so many threads and
3:09
conflicts that all pay off there's uh
3:13
the head Rider is in a big conflict with
3:16
the woman who's the censor you know
3:18
rewriting the script at the last minute
3:21
like it I just I love this film thought
3:24
it was amazing might be one of Jason
3:27
wrightman's best best films his the last
3:30
Ghostbusters was okay um afterlife but
3:33
uh I really enjoyed this I'll probably
3:36
see it again Allan what did you think of
3:38
Saturday night yeah uh I think you liked
3:41
it better than I did um but I did like
3:43
it I did like it I'll be honest the
3:45
first half of the movie um was I was
3:48
getting worried uh the first half of the
3:51
movie I was not really into um and I'll
3:55
tell you why uh you know it's set up
3:58
basically like
4:00
you know you kind of walk in it's a com
4:02
it's about a comedy show uh it feels
4:04
like it's a sketch of of Saturday Night
4:07
Live of behind the scenes of sat Night
4:09
Live so you know like you I watched
4:12
satday Night Live from the beginning as
4:13
a as a kid um most of the time I watched
4:16
it from 11:30 to midnight and then I
4:18
fell asleep U but I was there for like
4:20
the Muppets for Mr Bill those were the
4:22
stuff I really like um and so I'm very
4:25
familiar with the cast the original cast
4:27
of Saturday Night Live and I definitely
4:30
seen them in all their movies I've seen
4:32
I've seen the original uh cast Clips uh
4:36
over and over again so I'm very familiar
4:38
and when the movie opens and you're
4:40
introduced to the cast uh it they all
4:43
felt like caricatures of themselves uh
4:46
it didn't feel authentic to me like is
4:48
that really Gilder Radner is that how
4:50
they're goingon to portray Gilder Radner
4:51
is that how they're gonna portray Chase
4:53
and Dan arroy and John balushi and I'm
4:56
part of me was like I get this is before
4:59
the first episode but is this really
5:01
what it's like and then you even brought
5:02
it up I don't know how much of this
5:05
movie is real and how much of it is
5:07
dramatized uh I don't know that people
5:09
really hated Jim Henson like they did in
5:12
this movie um so I I know a lot I know a
5:16
lot about the the SNL lore and I'll say
5:19
a lot of it is accurate Jim B John
5:22
balushi the way he acted Chevy Chase was
5:24
an
5:25
a-hole womanizing a-hole and he only was
5:29
on the first season of SNL I mean no one
5:32
liked Chevy Chase okay yeah and and you
5:35
yeah I mean I get I get the themes are
5:37
there I'm just not sure that the
5:39
performances reflect that you know like
5:42
I was you know I was really on the fence
5:46
as to whether Ella hunt did uh Gilda
5:48
rner well and so this is me in the first
5:51
half of the movie feeling like where
5:54
where are we going uh what is happening
5:57
uh are these really the people am I
6:00
judging this too harshly right now but I
6:03
will say at the second half when the
6:05
true plot kicks in for this show that's
6:08
when I I was in uh because in the second
6:11
half what what's going on and you don't
6:12
really realize it until the second half
6:15
but um what's happening is the
6:17
executives want Lauren Michaels to fail
6:20
because they hold on because they're in
6:22
a contract dispute with Johnny Carson
6:25
and that that s Night Live is is a
6:27
threat saying that uh you know unless
6:30
unless we pay you less we're not going
6:32
to give you Saturday night to do your
6:33
show we're going to give it to these
6:35
kids and um and they wanted to use a
6:38
show as kind of Leverage and um and uh
6:42
the way things were going is that uh
6:45
this this whole show the 90 minutes
6:47
leading up to the actual show was in
6:49
utter chaos uh the script hadn't been
6:52
finalized Jim Henson hadn't got his
6:54
script uh there is there was three hours
6:57
of show on the board you had Billy
6:59
Crystal in the background wondering if
7:01
he's going to get on the show um and
7:04
then and then when the pressure when
7:05
William defo shows up and applies
7:07
maximum pressure does this movie really
7:10
take off and now you're rooting for for
7:12
Lauren Michaels right right and and and
7:15
I got to give it to Gabriel leel you
7:17
know the picture here shows Lauren
7:19
Michaels carrying the entire show that's
7:22
the theme of this movie Lauren Michaels
7:23
is carrying this entire show and will he
7:27
will does he have the fortitude to be
7:29
able to pull it off and um you know I
7:32
don't want to spoil the the ending so
7:33
you can figure out yeah there is another
7:36
there's so many threads everything pays
7:39
off there's even a thread about a
7:41
Polaroid camera they're like hey can you
7:43
work this Polaroid camera into a sketch
7:45
and do a commercial and he's like no but
7:48
that pays off and there's a really great
7:51
moment I won't spoil it but we're the
7:54
question is what is the show and he
7:57
doesn't know what the show is I don't
7:59
know what the show is we haven't done it
8:01
yet you know like I don't know and then
8:04
he you finally hear the explanation it's
8:07
so great it's so poetic and it it made
8:10
me fall in love with SNL again I'm still
8:14
not gonna watch it this weekend um but
8:17
it made me appreciate even more old
8:19
episodes and the show has been SI this
8:23
season of
8:24
SNL 50 years yeah will be 50 years of a
8:29
show of this type that's lasted that
8:32
long really is an achievement You know
8:35
despite that it's fallen on uh you know
8:38
not so great times now but the thing is
8:41
is that first cast including Bill Murray
8:44
it was so
8:45
counterculture uh yes you know it has
8:48
never been this level of counterculture
8:50
uh since that this cast uh went away and
8:54
that's the one thing I miss from s live
8:56
now because it just feels like you know
8:58
they're playing they they're doing the
9:00
exact same thing the exact thing thing
9:03
that this cast didn't want to do and
9:04
that was to play to sponsors and to play
9:06
to network Executives uh they want to do
9:09
their own show and that's what we got
9:11
and we don't get that anymore with
9:12
Saturday Night Live I I'd still love to
9:14
see a documentary I'm sure there's a lot
9:17
of BTS stuff you could find but um what
9:20
I do love about this the dramatization
9:22
the lore it all really works and um I
9:26
don't know I just I felt like energy I
9:29
mean look I did a live show for years
9:33
with uh attack of the show and that kind
9:36
of energy before you go live it's
9:40
there's nothing like it there's nothing
9:42
like it and when the when that hour is
9:44
done it's done the mistakes are in it
9:48
that thing didn't get a big laugh but
9:50
that worked we didn't think it would
9:52
work like that energy captured that
9:54
energy and I love the the ticking clock
9:57
it starts it tells you 9 minutes it
9:59
keeps checking in about every 10 minutes
10:01
it's almost uh Real Time the movie yeah
10:04
yeah so and the way the camera moves
10:07
there's a lot of roving shots one shot
10:11
you know not a lot of cutting it just
10:13
was so I I loved it one of my favorites
10:17
of the might be one of my favorites of
10:19
the year um if you love SNL what it was
10:22
and you're right SNL was in its
10:25
beginning counterculture now it's become
10:29
something else but in its early stages
10:33
it was awesome and it was beautiful to
10:36
see and uh I think it really captured
10:39
that energy that spirit so I recommend
10:43
it you recommend it I do recommend it um
10:46
but you know just be warned uh just get
10:48
through that first half uh and then
10:50
it'll really take off from there
10:59
SM
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