Saturday Night Review: Exploring Jason Reitman’s Nostalgia Trap

In the world of late-night television, few shows have managed to leave as lasting an impression as Saturday Night Live (SNL). Its rise from chaotic beginnings to a cultural institution has been well documented, but in recent years, the shine seems to have faded. From the heyday of sharp, cutting-edge sketches to today’s often lukewarm offerings, many wonder where it all went wrong. Enter Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night, a film that attempts to capture the magic of SNL’s inception, but ultimately gets bogged down in the same nostalgia trap that has ensnared much of contemporary entertainment.

The Golden Age of SNL: Why We Keep Looking Back

It’s no secret that SNL was once the pinnacle of American sketch comedy. In the late ’70s and early ’80s, the show broke barriers and introduced the world to comedic legends like John Belushi, Gilda Radner, and Chevy Chase. Each episode felt like a roller coaster of satire and irreverence, with writers and performers pushing the envelope. The sketches were not just funny but often socially relevant, blending absurd humor with biting political commentary.

Fast-forward to the present day, and the landscape has shifted dramatically. Today, the show feels more formulaic, sometimes struggling to find that sharp edge it once wielded so effortlessly. What happened to the magic? Many fans have turned to YouTube, seeking solace in clips from a bygone era when the writing was razor-sharp, and the performances electric. These older clips offer a glimpse into a time when SNL was truly cutting-edge, leaving us yearning for a return to form.

Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night: A Film That Can’t Escape Its Nostalgia

Jason Reitman is no stranger to nostalgia. The filmmaker, known for his work on Juno and Up in the Air, has spent much of his career walking the tightrope between past and present. But with Saturday Night, his deep love for the SNL of old threatens to suffocate the film’s potential. The movie serves as a homage to the chaotic days leading up to SNL’s first-ever broadcast in 1975, with Reitman painstakingly recreating the environment that Lorne Michaels and his ragtag team of misfits found themselves in.

However, despite his clear reverence for the material, Reitman struggles to elevate Saturday Night beyond a shallow exercise in nostalgia. Like his ill-fated Ghostbusters revival, this film gets bogged down in fan service, never quite making the case for why this story is worth revisiting in the first place.

For audiences unfamiliar with the intricacies of SNL’s early years, the film can feel disjointed and wearisome. Reitman, along with co-writer Gil Kenan, fails to create any meaningful stakes, and the story meanders between set pieces that lack emotional depth. At its core, the film is a tribute to an era that, for many, holds no personal resonance. And therein lies the problem: Saturday Night feels like a story about the past, told by people stuck in it.

The Decline of Comedy as a Cultural Force

While Reitman’s Saturday Night flounders under the weight of its nostalgia, it’s also symptomatic of a broader trend in entertainment. Over the last decade, Hollywood has churned out a plethora of origin stories and nostalgic revivals from WeWork to Tetris, and even a parody about Pop-Tarts. The assumption seems to be that if enough people love what something became, they’ll care about how it started. Yet, as Saturday Night demonstrates, this isn’t always the case.

The decline of SNL mirrors the challenges facing modern comedy as a whole. What was once a vibrant, boundary-pushing art form has been increasingly watered down, both by commercial pressures and the ever-present threat of social media backlash. Audiences are savvier and more critical, and with the constant churn of content available on streaming services, their tastes have evolved. Unfortunately, instead of adapting to these shifts, many shows, including SNL, seem to have lost their edge, opting for safe, predictable laughs rather than the daring commentary that once defined them.

A Movie About Comedy Without Laughs

The irony of Saturday Night is that it’s a movie about one of the most important comedy shows in history, yet it fails to make us laugh. Sure, it’s a fictionalized account of the chaos leading up to SNL’s debut, but at no point does the humor feel organic or genuinely funny. This is not to say that Reitman doesn’t try. The cast, which includes a stellar line-up of young talent, does its best to inject energy into the proceedings. Gabriel LaBelle shines as Lorne Michaels, while Licorice Pizza’s Cooper Hoffman and Bodies Bodies Bodies’ Rachel Sennott bring charisma to their respective roles. But even their best efforts can’t save a script that often feels lifeless.

Comedy is notoriously difficult to translate onto film. Movies like Top Five, Late Night, and Hacks have shown how hard it can be to capture the spark of a live performance. The challenge lies in balancing the humour with the narrative, and more often than not, the jokes fall flat when they’re burdened with exposition or nostalgia. In Saturday Night, the sketches that should leave us doubled over in laughter instead feel like hollow echoes of the past.

The Illusion of Urgency

One of the film’s major flaws is its lack of real urgency. Reitman and Kenan attempt to create tension by showing Lorne Michaels scrambling to assemble a cast, appease nervous executives, and navigate technical disasters in the hours before the show goes live. But none of this stress feels real or involving. Compared to the stakes in Reitman’s previous films like The Front Runner, where a man’s fall from grace had national consequences, the drama in Saturday Night feels trivial.

This problem is compounded by the film’s frenetic pacing. While it tries to mimic the controlled chaos of live television, the result is a story that feels like it’s constantly spinning its wheels. There’s no satisfying payoff to the many obstacles thrown in the characters’ way; problems are raised, but solutions are glossed over or left unresolved.

Is Nostalgia Holding Us Back?

In the end, Saturday Night is a film trapped by its own nostalgia. Like the modern-day SNL, it’s more interested in celebrating the past than forging a new path forward. Jason Reitman’s love for the early days of SNL is clear, but in trying to capture that magic, he only succeeds in reminding us how far the show and, by extension, comedy itself has fallen.

While Saturday Night may appeal to die-hard fans of SNL, it ultimately fails to justify its existence. It’s a movie that feels more like a museum exhibit than a living, breathing work of art. And just like the current state of Saturday Night Live, it leaves us wondering whether it’s time to move on from the past and embrace something new.