There are few more recognisable brands in the world of entertainment than Saturday Night Live. Originally known as simply Saturday Night, the comedy variety show (which I’ll refer to as SNL going forward in this review) has been a stalwart of the American television landscape. In the almost half-century since SNL debuted, producer Lorne Michaels has provided a platform for a pantheon of beloved comedians including Bill Murray, Eddie Murphy, Will Ferrell, Tina Fey and Kristen Wiig to name but a few. The success of SNL has also spawned a slew of hit comedy films including The Blues Brothers and Wayne’s World.
Ahead of the fiftieth anniversary of SNL, director Jason Reitman and Sony Classics have produced the film Saturday Night. Reitman will be best known to audiences for directing the Oscar-nominated film Juno. He is also responsible for the two most recent entries in the Ghostbusters franchise. With Saturday Night, Jason Reitman provides viewers with an account of the events that occurred during the evening of the broadcast of the inaugural episode of SNL.
Saturday Night was released in the United States back in October to coincide with the start of SNL’s fiftieth season. It has now just made its way across the Atlantic to the United Kingdom and Ireland, where it is currently showing in cinemas. So does Saturday Night deliver a fitting tribute to one of comedy’s most enduring brands?
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