海角大神

The entertainingly madcap 鈥淪aturday Night鈥� takes place in the frenetic 90-minute run-up to the airing of the first 鈥淪aturday Night Live鈥� show on Oct. 11, 1975. The events appear to be happening almost in real time, and in one continuous shot. The film鈥檚 director, Jason Reitman, maintains this deception by whizzing his camera in and out of dressing rooms, hallways, soundstages, the streets outside New York City鈥檚 30 Rockefeller Plaza 鈥� just about everywhere.

All this vertiginousness isn鈥檛 exhausting because Reitman and his actors are always giving us something to look at and listen to. The freneticism isn鈥檛 a stylistic affectation. It鈥檚 central to the story. 鈥淪aturday Night鈥� is about how creativity can sometimes issue from mayhem. It鈥檚 also about how sometimes mayhem is just mayhem.

In a few quick brushstrokes, we are introduced to the cast and crew. Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle), the creator and driving force of 鈥淪NL,鈥� is a human tornado trying to wrangle a million movable parts and swelled heads. The nervous NBC honchos, notably Dave Tebet (Willem Dafoe), are ready to pull the plug right up until airtime and instead substitute a rerun of Johnny Carson鈥檚 鈥淭onight Show.鈥� At least, Tebet figures, the rerun will draw a bigger audience.

When I first heard this film was in production, I assumed it wouldn鈥檛 work because audiences 鈥� or at least those old enough to remember 鈥� wouldn鈥檛 buy a cast of young actors impersonating the likes of John Belushi, Chevy Chase, and Gilda Radner. (They are played by, respectively, Matt Wood, Cory Michael Smith, and Ella Hunt.) But the performers for the most part deport themselves well. Along with Kim Matula (as Jane Curtin), Emily Fairn (Laraine Newman), and Lamorne Morris (Garrett Morris, no relation), they suggest the Not Ready for Prime Time Players without attempting to strictly mimic them.

Unfortunately, several of these players, notably Curtin, Newman, and, more surprisingly, Belushi and Radner, are given rather short shrift. The bulk of the film鈥檚 focus is on Michaels; his wife Rosie Shuster (Rachel Sennott), one of the show鈥檚 writers; and Chase, who comes across as the protagonist with the fattest ego 鈥� quite an achievement in this crowd. A backstage confrontation between Chase and a visiting Milton Berle (a great J.K. Simmons) encapsulates the movie鈥檚 central conflict of Old School vs. Young Turks. Berle is haughtily dismissive of these upstarts and predicts they will be forgotten. Chase represents the generation that grew up on television long after Uncle Miltie left the airwaves. What Berle and the NBC executives didn鈥檛 realize that fateful night is that 鈥淪NL鈥� created a new audience along with a new show.

Like most actual 鈥淪NL鈥� episodes, 鈥淪aturday Night鈥� is a hit-and-miss affair, but somehow this seems appropriate to the subject. Some of the scenes, like the ones featuring the Muppets, are rather dim. Others, notably confrontations involving the viperish writer Michael O鈥橠onoghue (Tommy Dewey), are spot on. The show鈥檚 uptight script supervisor 鈥� i.e., NBC censor 鈥� doesn鈥檛 stand a chance with him. (She鈥檚 well played by Catherine Curtin, no relation to Jane.)

Reitman and his co-writer Gil Kenan are not reaching for anything profound in this film, which is probably a good thing. But I wish they had made more of a point of what a boys club, specifically a white boys club, this show was. Except for Shuster, none of the women in the movie are really given much of a voice, even in dissent. Morris, the only Black member of the cast, wonders aloud about his tokenism. He deserved more screen time. The film also whitewashes the behind-the-scenes drug use.

Reitman may also be making too much of this moment in TV history. 鈥淪NL鈥� didn鈥檛 represent a cultural revolution exactly. Loving the show did not preclude its newfound adherents from also cherishing reruns of 鈥淭he Dick Van Dyke Show鈥� and 鈥淚 Love Lucy鈥� and all the rest. 鈥淪NL鈥� was more like a recalibration of what television could offer. And it made it up as it went along.

鈥淪aturday Night鈥� also seems made up on the run, except, of course, its improvisatory tone is an illusion. At its best, the film demonstrates a showbiz truism: It takes a lot of hard work to make something look easy.

Peter Rainer is the Monitor鈥檚 film critic. 鈥淪aturday Night鈥� is rated R for language throughout, sexual references, some drug use, and brief graphic nudity.