SATURDAY NIGHT
LIVE FROM NEW YORK, IT’S…
Do not adjust your set: the anarchic Saturday Night is unleashed live on US TV.
★★★
OUT 31 JANUARY / CERT 15 / 109 MINS
DIRECTOR Jason Reitman
CAST Gabriel LaBelle, Rachel Sennott, Cory Michael Smith, Cooper Hoffman, Nicholas Braun, Matt Wood, J.K. Simmons
PLOT On 11 October 1975, in Midtown Manhattan, a group of people are preparing to put on a show. The content may be silly, but the stakes are higher than the famous 66-storey building they’re in.
SATURDAY NIGHT WOULD make for a very solid double-bill with a Muppets movie. And not just because there are Muppets in it — well, primitive Muppets, at least, in the form of early Jim Henson creations King Ploobis and Vazh. Because much like one of Kermit and co’s capers, it’s all about putting on a show, and how much stress, anxiety and arm-flapping goes into playing music and lighting lights. At the centre of Jason Reitman’s movie, essentially playing the role of the frog, is the cardigan-wearing Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle), young Canadian TV producer and wannabe revolutionary of the medium. He’s the sensible one. Around him swirls chaos, in many forms. There’s even an Animal stand-in, in the burly shape of John Belushi (Matt Wood), cocaine appreciator and walking tornado.