Independent Film Festival Boston 2010

CLOSING NIGHT FILM

Saturday Night Live has become a fixture of the American comedy scene, a comedic crucible for a select few to prove their chops on a national stage every week. Since the days of “The Not Ready for Prime Time Players,” SNL has catapulted unknown comics from obscurity to fame overnight. Most viewers can only imagine what goes on behind the scenes. Stories of backstage debauchery scandalized in the 1970s, but little was said about the work itself. What did it take to get a sketch from idea to broadcast? Few performers would tell all while they were still active on the show, due to producer Lorne Michaels’ notorious disapproval—leaving us to pore through the memoirs and oral histories of departed cast members.

But that changed when James Franco (PINEAPPLE EXPRESS, General Hospital) went to Studio 8H to make a short film on current cast member Bill Hader (FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL) and found, to his surprise, that Michaels was willing to grant him increasingly broad access to every aspect of the show’s production.

Unfolding over the course of one week when two-time host John Malkovich takes to the stage, Franco’s camera follows every step leading up to the December 6, 2008, broadcast. From the pitch meeting through the all-night writing sessions, to the rehearsals, the pressure is constantly on the cast to outdo the last show and each other.

Perhaps because Franco is himself a two-time host, much of the cast is open and loose around him, sharing insights into the writing and performing process that no other filmmaker would be able to coax forth. Whether you watch the digital shorts over and over or you haven’t checked in on the show since the Mike Meyers era, SATURDAY NIGHT is a revelatory look at a cultural comedy institution.

—Brian Tamm