James Franco's SATURDAY NIGHT is, as billed, a Maysles Bros.-styled documentary about the inner workings of Saturday Night Live. Apparently, D.A. Pennebaker approached Lorne Michaels back in the 70's about doing a documentary of just this type, but one would expect the backstage goings-on of the Belushi cast made him nervous about having a documentarian around.
When I found out the doc covers the December 2008 episode hosted by John Malkovich, two things came to mind. First, that this was the episode that included "J'Accuzzi" (one of the best sketches they've done in the last 10 years), and second, that it takes place during the last clutch of shows with Casey Wilson and Michaela Watkins, who were rather abruptly fired after that season.
There's a chunk of material focusing on Wilson pitching a sketch that bombs disastrously during the table read that was rather difficult for me to watch, as I've liked her work since she started on the show. The producer of the doc mentioned during the Q&A that there was even more footage from that which he'd have rather kept in but Franco cut in deference to his friend (Wilson). Going any further would have been beyond excessive.
Having a theatre and sketch comedy background, the pitch to table read to rehearsal to dress to final product process was engrossing, but I could feel others near me shift in their seats after around the halfway point. A healthy amount of cursing and riffing not seen in the live show kept everyone with it through the end, though. As a result, those who showed up because Franco's name was attached or out of their love of the current cast (Bill Hader in particular) got plenty of what they were expecting. Things start to drag a bit in the last third with a few bits with Hader that are funny, but are in there only because he and Franco get on so well and banter like old buddies.
Among my favorite bits were just about anything involving Malkovich. Watching him doubling up in laughter at various pitches, rehearsing the "The Lost Works of Judy Blume: Gertie", and committing so completely to "J'Accuzzi" just hit the spot for me. The moment that made the whole thing for me is where one writer is asking someone else which computerized fart sound comes off as the most realistic. She was stone cold serious.
One would assume that the doc already has some sort of distribution set up through NBC-Universal, but if not, it's due for a quick pick-up. It would be brilliant of NBC to air it uncensored and unedited in place of an SNL repeat during the summer, but that'd never happen, right?