Try before you buy (or rent) Saturday Night, the 2024 new movie from Jason Reitman about the lead-up to the first-ever episode of Saturday Night Live. Saturday Night is now available for at-home viewing via digital on-demand platforms, but you can also watch the first eight and a half minutes of the movie for free to give yourself a sampling of the movie before charging your card.
Reitman directed and co-wrote Saturday Night (with Gil Kenan), which tracks in real-time the 90 minutes before Saturday Night Live’s debut episode on October 11, 1975. Young producer Lorne Michaels, played by Gabriel LaBelle, deals with erratic stars and actors, network bigwigs that don’t believe in the show and his own personal struggles as he tries to bring something to air that will revolutionize television. In addition to LaBelle, the movie stars Rachel Sennott, Cory Michael Smith, Dylan O’Brien, Ella Hunt, Emily Fairn, Matt Wood, Lamorne Morris, Cooper Hoffman, Nicholas Braun, Finn Wolfhard, J.K. Simmons, Willem Dafoe and more.
The movie wastes no time dropping you right into the chaotic nature of the night, as Michaels has to corral Andy Kaufman (Braun) into the studio, assure Dick Ebersol (Hoffman) that he knows what the show is going to be despite all signs to the contrary and deal with his cast’s ego, including Chevy Chase (Smith) and John Belushi (Wood). That’s all crammed into the frenetic first minutes that you can now watch on YouTube.
That fast-paced start continues throughout, making Saturday Night one of the most energetic and entertaining movies of the year. That's backed up by the movie being “Certified Fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes by critics and receiving an 84% positive rating from audiences on the site.
Personally, I loved the ensemble’s performances in Saturday Night, but particularly LaBelle, Sennott (as Michaels’ wife-at-the-time and collaborator Rosie Shuster) and Morris (as original SNL cast member Garrett Morris, no relation). I also found the drama of the movie’s ticking clock and myriad of issues to be even more compelling than the humor, despite knowing what SNL would become. Get my full thoughts with my Saturday Night review.
If you do want to watch all of Saturday Night on-demand, it is available to rent in the US through digital on-demand platforms including Prime Video, Google Play, Fandango at Home, Apple TV and YouTube.
Waiting for when Saturday Night is part of a specific streaming service at no additional cost? Unfortunately, we don’t have any info on when and where that is going to happen. Saturday Night is a Sony Pictures movie, so in all likelihood, it will eventually land on Netflix. That is not confirmed at this time and is just my educated guess, as other Sony Pictures movies recently have had their streaming debuts on Netflix (ie Bad Boys: Ride or Die).
For UK movie fans interested in watching Saturday Night, the movie is set to premiere in cinemas on January 31, 2025.
