The Big Picture · Discussion · Review · Roundtable · Interview
October 11, 2024/ 115 min/ Sean Fennessey · Chris Ryan
Sean Fennessey and Chris Ryan review Jason Reitman's real-time SNL-origin movie 'Saturday Night,' then each rank five favorite backstage movies. Then Sean and New York Times critic John Caramanica dig into 'Piece by Piece,' the Lego-animated Pharrell Williams doc.
14 films across 4 segments.
AI-generated This episode was transcribed and analyzed with AI models. The matches aren't perfect — expect the occasional misheard title or a link to the wrong film.
The ‘A Complete Unknown’ trailerMangold's Dylan movie, judged on two minutes
James Mangold's mid-'60s Dylan film, out Christmas Day. Sean, a Dylan obsessive, was underwhelmed by the second trailer and read it as A Star Is Born-style modernization; both figure that means it'll be a hit. The agreed highlight: Boyd Holbrook as Johnny Cash, minus the voice.
‘Saturday Night’
Reitman's real-time run at the 90 minutes before the first SNL broadcast, October 11, 1975. Both hosts had fun and found it forgettable, a 'vacuum movie' carried by Jon Batiste's ticking score and a Sorkin-ish invented enemy in Willem Dafoe's network heavy (the real Dave Tebet was an ally). Standouts: Dylan O'Brien as Aykroyd, Cory Michael Smith as Chevy Chase, Rachel Sennott as Rosie Shuster.
The Top Five Backstage Movies two lists, five apiece: putting on the show
No. 1. The making of a picture and the silent-to-talkies turn; one of his all-time favorites.
No. 2. Stiller's send-up of actors lost inside a war-movie shoot, knowingly playing off Apocalypse Now and Hearts of Darkness. McConaughey as the agent, money.
No. 3. Winterbottom's metafictional 'Tristram Shandy' adaptation with Coogan and Brydon, the precursor to The Trip.
No. 4. Tom DiCillo's semi-surreal comedy about how hard it is to shoot a low-budget movie, with Steve Buscemi and Catherine Keener.
No. 5. Godard's 'Le Mépris': a movie about making a movie, with Bardot, Piccoli, Palance, and Fritz Lang as himself.
No. 1. Fosse's autobiographical portrait of a director mounting a show while his body and love life fall apart.
No. 2. James L. Brooks inside a network news operation; the Albert Brooks fill-in sequence is true backstage.
No. 3. Truffaut's love letter to the chaos of a film set, the sunnier answer to Contempt.
No. 4. Peter O'Toole as a manipulative director, Steve Railsback as his fugitive stuntman; Richard Rush's ode to practical movie magic.
No. 5. Altman's black-hearted satire of studio Hollywood, Tim Robbins as the executive drawn into a murder.
Sidecar to No. 1. Pennebaker's document of the 'Company' cast recording: Sondheim and Elaine Stritch, unvarnished. On Criterion Channel.
‘Piece by Piece’
Morgan Neville's Lego-animated Pharrell Williams doc. Caramanica, who's covered Pharrell since around 1999, and Sean agree it's irresistible as hip-hop nostalgia (the Nore-to-Snoop stretch, the beats visualized as Lego objects) but guarded to the point of empty as a film. Pharrell never appears on camera and reveals almost nothing; the second half, after Gwen Stefani, flatlines.
Also mentioned raised along the way
In the ‘Complete Unknown’ talk A Star Is BornBohemian Rhapsody
Around ‘Saturday Night’ September 5Deadpool & WolverineThe FabelmansSnack ShackLand of BadRemembering Gene WilderHorizon: An American Saga
Jason Reitman's other films Thank You for SmokingJunoUp in the AirYoung AdultLabor DayMen, Women & ChildrenTullyThe Front RunnerGhostbusters: AfterlifeGhostbusters: Frozen Empire
In the backstage-movies talk Wayne's WorldA Night at the RoxburySing SingDrive My CarNoises OffStage FrightJohnny SuedeBox of MoonlightThe Real BlondeStranger Than ParadiseJohnny DangerouslyLawrence of ArabiaIn the Line of FireApocalypse NowHearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's ApocalypseThe Cable GuyReality BitesThe Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Around ‘Piece by Piece’ STEVE! (martin) a documentary in 2 piecesThe Lego MovieThe Lego Batman MovieBillie Eilish: The World's a Little BlurryFade to BlackNas: Time Is IllmaticDumb Money
Also mentioned The Wild RobotThe Apprentice
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
TV Saturday Night LiveStudio 60 on the Sunset StripThe FranchiseSlow HorsesThe WireThe Last DanceThe Beatles: Get BackHomicide: Life on the StreetWu-Tang: An American SagaDocumentary Now!Mary Tyler MooreTaxiThe SimpsonsSeverance