Gabriel LaBelle as Lorne Michaels, Ella Hunt as Gilda Radner, Matt Wood as John Belushi and Dylan O_Brien as Dan Aykroyd in a scene from "Saturday Night." (Photo credit by Hopper Stone. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc.)
Playing it safe is so 2023. The past several weeks have seen the release of a handful of movies that refuse to play by the rules. This trio of works from well-known directors boast bold concepts, starry ensemble casts and enviable film festival slots. But as they make their way to your local multiplex, these polarizing pictures show that oversized ambition and retro appeal don't automatically translate into glowing word of mouth or profitable results at the box office.
Two of the three releases have already faced the wrath of certain sectors of Film Twitter, as well as deafening indifference from Joe Moviegoer. The third, less controversial title opens in theaters this holiday weekend riding a wave of high-profile premieres and a checkered reaction from those who have already caught up with it. Where do I fall? Very mixed feelings overall, though one of them has a slight edge over the others, and it's probably not the one you think. Let's dig in.
“Saturday Night”: The egos are colossal and the chutzpah is admirable, on both sides of the camera. Director/co-screenwriter Jason Reitman aims to take viewers back in time and behind the scenes to capture the pandemonium that preceded the airing of the very first episode of the comedy-sketch sensation that became “Saturday Night Live.”
Gabriel LaBelle as Lorne Michaels, Kaia Gerber as Jacqueline Carlin and Cory Michael Smith as Chevy Chase in a scene from "Saturday Night." (Photo credit by Hopper Stone. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc.)
The enthusiasm is palpable, as is the willingness to break from the norm. The Columbia Pictures release has been staged and shot like a film from the period it's set: the mid-1970s. Let's call Reitman's aesthetic Robert Altman lite. A roving camera, overlapping dialogue and lively naturalism are the order of the day.
And very little of it rings true. “Saturday Night” tries oh so very hard to navigate the trial-by-fire ordeal of the show's creator and producer, Lorne Michaels (“The Fabelmans'” Gabriel LaBelle), to bring together a show that, Reitman conveys over and over again, was a hair's breadth away from having the plug pulled on it. But to capture the feeling that the overly caffeinated protagonist is constantly averting disaster while the camera tries to keep up with him, it all needs to feel like it's actually unfolding before your eyes. That was one of Altman's gifts: his knack for expertly orchestrating bedlam as if he's just about to lose control.
By contrast, “Saturday Night” is contrived chaos, a feature-length stunt where every Murphy's-law setback feels calculated and carefully scripted. Reitman, who co-wrote the film alongside Gil Kenan, shows genuine affection for his New York City setting and the comedians who, the filmmakers reiterate in a way that treats viewers like dummies, helped change television. But this devotion is somewhat undercut by a cast that approach their roles like period dress-up.
Cooper Hoffman as Dick Ebersol, Lamorne Morris as Garrett Morris, Cory Michael Smith as Chevy Chase, Emily Fairn as Laraine Newman, Ella Hunt as Gilda Radner, Kim Matula as Jane Curtin and Dylan O_Brien as Dan Aykroyd in a scene from "Saturday Night."(Photo credit by Hopper Stone. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc.)
Don't look at LaBelle for respite. The star, who gave a much more natural performance in the underseen “Snack Shack” earlier this year, delivers a mannered, one-note turn that fits all too neatly with Reitman and Kenan's somewhat misguided portrayal of Michaels as a maverick and an underdog. It's safe to say this angle is more than a tad on the idealized side.
More effective in a smaller role is “Licorice Pizza's” Cooper Hoffman as Dick Ebersol, the prolific TV veteran who started out as NBC's director of weekend late night programming and acted as a buffer between Michaels and the suits who were skeptical that this small-screen experiment would work. In one of the film's most effective scenes, he gives Michaels a reality check, conveying how precarious his situation is. (This is the part where I point out that “Licorice Pizza” got its '70s details just right.)
The rest of the cast is a wildly uneven grab-bag of iconic character actors and up-and-coming young faces. Cory Michael Smith, so good as the Riddler in FOX's “Gotham” series, nails Chevy Chase's double helix of charm and arrogance, and Dylan O'Brien makes a plausibly snide Dan Aykroyd. Even though the story hinges considerably on his character, Matt Wood is merely serviceable as loose cannon John Belushi. Less convincing is J.K. Simmons as a snobbish Milton Berle. The showbiz elder statesman is ready and willing to reveal his not-so-hidden assets, literally, in the process showing he's as much of a jerk as Chase was, with an older generation's entitlement thrown in.
Aubrey Plaza as Wow Platinum in a scene from "Megalopolis." (Photo courtesy of Lionsgate)
Amusing in pockets but thoroughly counterfeit, down to its fake film scratches, this hackneyed pressure cooker of a comedy finally gets its act together in the last 20 minutes or so, when Reitman finally finds his footing, and his stabs at making it feel like it's happening in real time stop coming across as a film school overreach. Alas, it's too little, too late. By this point, you might be as tuned out as the audience members at my preview screening who opted to bolt well before the end.
Reitman burst onto the scene back in 2005 with the Big Tobacco satire “Thank You for Smoking,” and he is best known for his one-two punch of “Juno” and “Up in the Air” a few years after that. The ensuing years have seen diminishing returns from the Oscar nominee, but say this for the middling “Saturday Night”: It's a decisive step up from his unwatchable legacy sequel “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” (and about on par with this year's “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire,” which Kenan directed). I might be damning this latest effort with faint praise by saying it's nowhere near as bad as some of the films the original cast of “SNL” went on to make after their careers took off. Still, considering its buzz and the talent involved, this tribute to some comedic TV pioneers does not live up to the hype.
Giancarlo Esposito as Mayor Franklyn Cicero in a scene from "Megalopolis." (Photo courtesy of Lionsgate)
“Megalopolis”: “Saturday Night” takes place during the final hours of October 11, 1975. Back then, director Francis Ford Coppola was on top of the Hollywood food chain, his first two “Godfather” films already under his belt. Decades later, this futuristic opus split festival audiences and opened with a whimper at the North American box office, including an unsuccessful IMAX rollout.
The long-gestating chronicle of a 21st century society in an alternate America, and the leaders who are at odds as to how to tackle the future, features a high-wattage cast headlined by a reliably solid Adam Driver as Cesar Catilina, a genius architect who won a Nobel Prize for inventing Megalon, the revolutionary building material with the potential to turn the city of New Rome, a postmodern spin on New York City, into the titular utopia. As the film opens, Cesar discovers that, much like the X-Men's Professor X, he has the ability to hit the pause button on time itself.
But Cesar faces a big stumbling block in the form of Franklyn Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito), the city's corrupt mayor. Things become further complicated when Cicero's daughter Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel) shows an intellectual curiosity about Cesar's project that evolves into a possible romantic interest. The wheels are set in motion as New Rome's poor disenfranchised masses grow increasingly resentful about being denied access to the opulence that the wealthy Romans enjoy, depicted with Felliniesque flair in a Roman circus sequence complete with a chariot race.
Nathalie Emmanuel as Julia Cicero and Adam Driver as Cesar Catilina in a scene from "Megalopolis." (Photo courtesy of Lionsgate)
The first 50 minutes or so of “Megalopolis” are very much the auteur-driven breath of fresh air its supporters have championed, its unflappable idealism an ideal engine with which to drive Coppola's big ideas. The genre splicing works; this is a gumbo pot of sci-fi and political intrigue that plays like a feature-length rebuke of Ayn Rand's Objectivism. The problem lies in the creaky telenovela plot that drives the film forward. Coppola tries to weave his lofty concepts with what amounts to a half-baked power-play potboiler, but those two facets never coalesce into a satisfying whole.
Let's not mince words here: Coppola loses the thread following a promising start. “Megalopolis” lurches in fits and starts, reminiscent of an Orson Welles production that took so long to get financed and shot that it feels like several different films slapped together. Fans of auteur cinema may want to give Coppola the benefit of the doubt like I did, but it becomes impossible to ignore the film's lack of clarity and cohesion.
The cast's different acting styles contribute to the tonal cacophony. Emmanuel, quite good in HBO's “Game of Thrones,” often seems lost in her scenes opposite Driver, a blank space where ambivalence and conviction out to seize the spotlight. On the other hand, Aubrey Plaza is a camptastic treat as conniving TV personality Wow Platinum. It's clear the “Ingrid Goes West” and “The White Lotus” star understood the assignment; her performance lives up to her character's name. Not quite on her level, though about as unhinged, is Shia LaBeouf as Cesar's troublemaking cousin. Pulling double duty as narrator and Cesar's assistant/chauffeur is Fundi Romaine, played by Laurence Fishburne, an always welcome screen presence, even though seeing him as Driver's driver gives off unfortunate “Driving Miss Daisy” vibes. (The cast also includes Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman, but this is hardly the “Midnight Cowboy” reunion I was hoping for.)
Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck/Joker and Lady Gaga as Lee Quinzel in a scene from "Joker: Folie à Deux." (Photo credit by Niko Tavernise. Courtesy of Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.)
“Megalopolis,” which made its world premiere at this year's Cannes Film Festival, comes saddled with a series of controversies, including reports of a tumultuous set that had crew members, including the art department and visual effects team, walking off during production, as well as reports of Coppola's inappropriate conduct toward some of the female extras and, closer to the film's commercial release, a trailer that used fabricated critic pull-quotes when referring to Coppola's older films.
But let's set these issues aside for a moment. The film's failure lies, not with the lightning-rod headlines surrounding its making and marketing, but in Coppola's inability to wed his fertile imagination to a fully developed narrative. He has crafted an ambitious jumble, one that's all over the place in frustrating and off-putting ways. It's fun to play in the legendary filmmaker's sandbox. Until it's not.
"Joker: Folie à Deux": No, we did not need a sequel to “Joker,” a massively overpraised origin story that reduced the Batman archvillain's madness to an accessory in its collage of Martin Scorsese cosplay and R-rated DC Comics bro catnip. Considering the contempt I hold for director Todd Phillips and his depiction of the criminally insane psychopath created by Bill Finger, Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson, your intrepid reviewer is probably the least impartial person to weigh in on a follow-up glimpse at this character.
Nevertheless, I chose to believe my eyes, and this epic jailhouse saga/courtroom drama works more than it doesn't, due in large part because Phillips sets his sights on fanboy culture, the very people who celebrated Part 1, and makes them the butt of the joke. So, um, yeah, I really dug the bile directed at the target audience.
Brendan Gleeson as Jackie Sullivan and Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck in a scene from "Joker: Folie à Deux." (Photo credit by Niko Tavernise. Courtesy of Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.)
And it's bile with a song in its heart. Phillips left “Joker” fans scratching their heads when he announced he was making this sequel as a musical. It's the first in several strange choices that serve to alienate the demographic that would most reliably show up to a “Joker” movie, but it also helps make the finished product a more intriguing provocation.
The film picks up several months after failed stand-up comedian-turned-murder suspect Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) was arrested and taken to Arkham Asylum, the iconic loony bin that has been the setting for some of the best Batman comics. The bulk of the film takes place indoors, whether it's behind prison walls or inside a court of law that will decide Fleck's fate, underscoring just how insular this character-driven piece is.
Fleck has become a husk of his former self (or selves) behind bars. He has even stopped saying jokes to the guards and the warden (Brendan Gleeson) who watch his every move. A scene where a shy young inmate approaches Fleck in the yard and asks for a kiss is handled with surprising tact by the filmmaker who had future Oscar nominee Bradley Cooper utter a gay slur for laughs in “The Hangover.”
But then Fleck spots new inmate Lee Quinzel (Lady Gaga), and that fleeting glimpse snaps him out of his stupor. His attorney (Catherine Keener) warns that he should be concentrating on his upcoming trial, where he could benefit from coming across as a helpless multiple personality disorder patient who let the “Joker,” not him, commit the murders of which he stands accused. (Remember his killing spree? Yeah, the details are hazy for me as well.)
But Quinzel unlocks something in Fleck. The joy that seeps into him is expressed in singing that doesn't always lead to a big number, a move that the film's detractors are using to argue that “Folie à Deux” is either a halfhearted musical or embarrassed to be one, but that wasn't my takeaway at all. There was a concern, considering how much the first “Joker” leaned into “Taxi Driver” and “The King of Comedy” for inspiration, that the sequel would simply be “New York, New York” with comic book characters, but Phillips pays homage to musicals of different eras, with an emphasis on Stanley Donen.
Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck and Lady Gaga as Lee Quinzel in a scene from "Joker: Folie à Deux." (Photo credit by Niko Tavernise. Courtesy of Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.)
The director probably gets the most mileage out of “The Band Wagon,” Donen's 1953 gem that has the aging star Fred Astaire plays coming to terms with his obsolescence. But “Folie à Deux” also appears to follow the template of “Pennies from Heaven,” Dennis Potter's 1978 miniseries, starring Bob Hoskins, that combined downbeat subject matter with having the characters lip-sync popular songs. Phillips opts for a similar mix of light and dark elements, sustaining a somber mood while inserting colorful song-and-dance interludes. I would argue he knows exactly what he's doing.
"Folie à Deux” is on shakier ground during the extended courtroom scenes, which grind the film to a halt. Phillips elicits a compelling performance from Gaga, but she's offscreen for considerable stretches. Her character, a gritty, early-1980s version of Harley Quinn, is too often reduced to the effect she has on Fleck's mental well-being. As a result, the portrayal of their (bad) romance suffers. Still, their chemistry is palpable.
The mystery at the center of this odd, brooding sequel is not the demons eating away at Fleck's mind but what compelled Phillips to burn this lucrative bridge. He must have known that by suggesting that a lot of what resonated with fans in the first film is immature nonsense, as he does here, he was signing his comic book franchise death warrant. With IMAX cameras, no less. It's an expensive flex that is currently spelling doom at the box office, but I'm sensing that down the road, years after the outrage has died down, this imperfect, fascinating film will be rife for rediscovery. Now is not its time.
“Saturday Night,” “Megalopolis” and “Joker: Folie à Deux” are now playing across South Florida. Move fast to catch Coppola's film, which is currently showing at Regal South Beach, AMC Sunset Place 24 and the Silverspot Cinema in downtown Miami, since it is expected to leave theaters next week. “Folie à Deux” still has IMAX engagements at Regal South Beach, AMC Aventura 24, AMC Sunset Place 24 and the AutoNation IMAX at the Museum of Discovery and Science in Fort Lauderdale.
