'SATURDAY NIGHT' Rated R

For a column that writes about film and television, it would be almost indefensible to forgo a critical look at the film “Saturday Night,” the story of the tumultuous start to a late-night television show now just a year shy of reaching the half-century mark.

The sketch comedy variety show “Saturday Night Live,” now in its fiftieth season, has had its own turbulent history over the years as cast members, some shooting up to considerable stardom and success in films and television, would sometimes run afoul of NBC’s corporate culture.

Even Lorne Michaels, creator and producer and occasionally appearing on his own show, stepped away early on for five seasons, but remains a force behind the scenes to this day as executive producer.

The original title for the late-night program, which debuted on Oct. 11, 1975, was “NBC’s Saturday Night,” a reference overlooked in “Saturday Night” because that is a piece of trivia irrelevant to the premise of the movie.

The film, at a running time approximating the time frame of a dress rehearsal, centers on the madcap countdown to the premiere episode going live from Studio 8H at New York’s Rockefeller Center.

All eyes are on the 11:30 p.m. launch, as studio executives and other honchos, most notably an anxious Dave Tebet (Willem Dafoe) telling Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle) “your crew is in open rebellion,” indicate that the ninety minutes preceding the broadcast looms as a potential disaster of epic proportions.

The very same NBC executive is only inches away from pulling the plug, and the angry voice of Johnny Carson, host of NBC’s “The Tonight Show,” on a phone call to Michaels, is upset that a bunch of nobodies could sabotage his late-night show, even though he would benefit from their failure.

The staging of the chaotic buildup to showtime is likely exaggerated for the purpose of dramatization, and in the compressed period leading up to the show going live, the enterprise becomes a mix of fact, fiction and myth rolled into a big ball of irreverent, wacky moments.

With a rather large cast of characters, from actors and network executives to the production crew and security, even some of the notable cast members get short-shrift, but above all the focus is truly on Michaels trying to corral his counter-culture performers.

Alternately appearing energetic and at times flummoxed, Michaels is performing a juggling act, getting help from his then-wife Rosie Shuster (Rachel Sennott), a contributor to many of the sketches.

Looming over the fast-approaching launch time, Michaels has his challenges in dealing with comedians and inexperienced actors, particularly with an erratic John Belushi (Matt Wood) who avoids signing his contract until right up to the moment that the putative curtain rises.

Bad enough having to wrangle the crew, Michaels and Shuster are not only scrambling for rewrites on the fly, but also have to deal with mechanical failures, power outages, and the set catching fire, while trying to maintain a sense of sanity and calm.

An on-the-set NBC censor struggles with some objectionable material, leading to the acerbic staff writer Michael O’Donoghue (Tommy Dewey) uttering profane contempt that might have easily come from George Carlin (Matthew Rhys) who appears as a host and drops a few F-bombs.

Even a scorecard on the cast members may not prove helpful because, unless you are familiar with the original performers, not everyone is immediately recognizable in filling a certain role.

However, Chevy Chase (Cory Michael Smith) stands out, if for no other reason than famously uttering the “Live from New York, It’s Saturday Night” opening line, even though the actor bears enough to the genuine article along with the delivery of his signature pratfall.

Lamorne Morris does such a great job of being the only Black cast member as Garret Morris that you might wonder if he’s the actual offspring of the actor who later created the fictional character of Dominican baseball player Chico Escuela, speaking only in broken English.

In this large ensemble cast, there are plenty of characters reduced to cameo roles, some of them expanded. J.K. Simmons does a great turn as veteran comedian Milton Berle paying a visit to the set and unable to contain his antipathy to anarchic comedy.

While the character of Andy Kaufman (Nicholas Braun) is immediately recognizable for his unique style, the notable female cast members Jane Curtin (Kim Matula), Gilda Radner (Ella Hunt), and Laraine Newman (Emily Fairn) are regrettably underused.

One thought about “Saturday Night” is what did the filmmakers believe would be the target audience for this film? It would appear tailored to those who remember the early years, rather than a younger generation not even knowing the genesis of the “Blues Brothers” created by Belushi and Dan Aykroyd.

The selling point for “Saturday Night” is the sheer lunacy of a revolutionary turn in television history where the satirical skewering of culture and politics was a novel concept. More than anything, it’s a trip down memory lane and plenty of messy, unruly fun.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.

MIDDLETOWN, Calif. — The Middletown Art Center, or MAC, welcomes the community to join a vibrant celebration of Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, on the evenings of Nov. 1 and 2 at the MAC rain or shine.

Both nights are free to the public and include a Community Ofrenda, music, dancing, craft-making with food and beverages for purchase.

Adults, teens and families with children are cordially invited to come together in a joyful and respectful commemoration of ancestors, and sharing of traditions.

“Día de los Muertos is a day of celebration because we wait with joy for the return of our loved ones who are no longer physically with us,” explained Middletown area resident Irene Martinez. “We believe that on this day all souls return. We honor them in our homes with an ofrenda, or altar, with cempasuchil – marigold flowers. We cook our loved ones’ favorite foods that they enjoyed here on earth and place them on the ofrenda. The cempasuchil flowers guide them to their ofrenda.”

On Nov. 1 from 5:30 to 9 p.m., the festivities begin at MAC with a Community Ofrenda and a special Día de los Muertos First Friday Drum Circle and Open Mic.

The public is invited to bring offerings, photographs of departed loved ones, and meaningful tokens — flowers, food and other mementos — for a shared community ofrenda.

Attendees are welcome to join the drum circle from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. and/or express themselves through music, poetry and spoken word, or engage in cultural art-making activities.

Maker vendors and delicious food by Goddess of the Mountain will also be onsite. Middletown’s popular Farmers Market and “trunk or treat” Halloween fun will also be happening this Friday evening. It’s a great night to come out to Middletown.

On Saturday, Nov. 2, from 6 to 10 p.m., the celebration continues with a Día de los Muertos Fiesta.

The evening’s activities include a performance by Middletown High School’s folklórico dancers and DJ Smooth with traditional and contemporary Latinx music. Enjoy music, dancing, face painting, and crafts for children and adults. Traditional Mexican food and beverages will be available for purchase from La-Mixteca and Rosales Market, allowing attendees to savor authentic flavors while partaking in the festivities.

The Día de los Muertos en Middletown celebration offers a unique opportunity for community members to come together, share cultural heritage, and foster connections across generations and backgrounds. Attendees can experience firsthand how honoring the past enriches our present.

The event is supported in part by Lake County Behavioral Health Services through community based mini grant funding, by Lake County Tribal Health, and by Middletown Art Center.

Middletown Art Center is a nonprofit dedicated to engaging the public in art making, art education and art appreciation and providing a platform for diverse voices and perspectives, striving to create an inclusive and accessible space for all.

To learn more and donate to support this or other MAC arts and cultural programs visit middletownartcenter.org.

For inquiries or further information, please contact the Middletown Art Center at 707-355-4465 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The MAC is located at 21456 State Highway 175 in Middletown.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The Mendo-Lake Singers chorus invites women who like to sing to join them for their holiday show.

No experience is necessary.

Rehearsals are held from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. every Tuesday at 1125 Martin St. in Lakeport.

The holiday show will be on Tuesday, Dec. 17, at 7 p.m. at the above location.

Community members are invited to attend free of charge, though donations are welcome.

Mendo-Lake Singers is a chapter of Sweet Adelines International, the world’s largest women’s a cappella barbershop-style singing organization.

For more information or to hire the Mendo-Lake Singers to sing at a holiday event, contact Director Pam Klier, 707-400-8380, or President Donna Bowen, 707-350-0644.

Halloween programming offers cable and streaming services an opportunity to load up the month of October with a plethora of thrills and chills.

While Peak Screaming at Paramount+ and AMC Networks’ “FearFest” deliver in a big way, there’s much to absorb even with other platforms.

Maybe not in the same league, FX Network is not to be left out as its “American Horror Stories,” co-created by horror genre maven Ryan Murphy, has its own “Huluween” five-episode event which will run on Hulu.

“American Horror Stories” is a spin-off of Murphy’s and Brad Falchuk’s award-winning hit anthology series “American Horror Story,” where the differentiation is that the derivative series features a different horror story each episode.

Leading up to Halloween is the sixth season debut of FX’s “What We Do in the Shadows,” a popular comedic series that documents the nightly exploits of vampire roommates.

Nandor (Kayvan Novak), Laszlo (Matt Berry), Nadja (Natasia Demetriou) and Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch) navigate the modern world of Staten Island with the help of human friend Guillermo (Harvey Guillen) as well as the vampire bureaucrat, The Guide (Kirsten Schaal).

The vampires are reconsidering their lives when a former roommate reappears after a 50-year nap, and realize they’ve accomplished little in a half-century. This could be a show to watch if you prefer laughs to frights.

AMC’s “FearFest,” the long-running annual horror and genre event features over 700 hours of iconic horror films, new series, specials and more. Anyone watching all 700 hours might just become a certifiable couch potato.

Artist, musician and horror enthusiast Janell Monae, as the official host of “FearFest,” has curated a list of her favorite horror films to stream, which include “An American Werewolf in London,” “The Fly,” Killer Klowns From Outer Space,” and “Carrie.”

AMC’s “The Walking Dead” is a familiar franchise, and now a highlight for “FearFest” is the original series “The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon – The Book of Carol,” picking up where season one left off.

Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) and Carol Peletier (Melissa McBride) confront old demons while she fights to find her friend and he struggles with his decision to stay in France, which apparently has some ramifications for the future of this European nation.

Within the AMC universe, Shudder presents the original series “Horror’s Greatest,” a deep dive into everything we love about horror. From fresh looks at classics to unearthing scores of hidden gems, this series has something for every fright film enthusiast.

What are the must-see films in horror’s many sub-genres? What’s the appeal of horror tropes, and how do today’s filmmakers subvert our expectations? What shape does horror take in countries outside of our own? “Horror’s Greatest” is looking for answers.

Shudder original film “Daddy’s Head” finds a young boy left in eerie solitude of a sprawling country estate with his newly widowed stepmother. The stepmother grows distant, and amidst growing family tension the boy begins to hear unsettling sounds echoing through corridors.

The boy becomes haunted by the presence of a grotesque creature bearing a disturbingly familiar resemblance to his late father. But as the boy’s warnings are dismissed as the imagination of a grieving child, the sinister entity tightens its grip on their crumbling lives.

To this day, writer, director, and actor Roman Polanski remains a fugitive from our justice system, but he’s the undeniable creative force behind great films like “Chinatown” and “Rosemary’s Baby,” the latter a classic psychological horror film.

Paramount+ has an all-new thriller film in “Apartment 7A,” which is set in 1965 New York City to tell the story prior to the legendary “Rosemary’s Baby,” exploring what happened in the infamous Bramford building before Rosemary (Mia Farrow) moved in.

An ambitious young dancer Terry (Julia Garner) dreams of fame and fortune in the Big Apple, but after suffering a devastating injury, an older, wealthy couple (Dianne Wiest and Kevin McNally) welcomes her into their home in the luxury Bramford apartment building.

When a fellow resident and influential Broadway producer (Jim Sturgess) offers her another chance at fame, it seems that all her dreams are finally coming true.

However, after an evening she can’t fully remember, disturbing circumstances soon have her second-guessing the sacrifices she’s willing to make for her career as she realizes that something evil is living not only in Apartment 7A but in the Bramford itself.

In the closing days of Halloween week, ABC delivers “Halloween Nightmares” episode on Dancing with the Stars, as the remaining couples get into the Halloween spirit with hair-raising transformations and spine-tingling routines.

Even the ABC game show “Press Your Luck” gets in on the act with its “Halloween Spooktacular” episode where the cartoon creature the Whammy delivers a few more tricks than treats as host Elizabeth Banks and the contestants scare up some big bucks.

ABC’s new series “Doctor Odyssey” episode “Halloween Week” features a high-stakes costume contest, but when a zombie-like illness plagues select passengers on the cruise ship, the festivities take a dark turn. This episode is a curtain call on Halloween night.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.

“JOKER: FOLIE A DEUX” — RATED R

For starters, it might serve well to recall the origin story for Joaquin Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck, aka the Joker, from the 2019 film in which his alter ego was the titular character who made it known that what he had were “negative thoughts.”

“Joker” presented such a whole picture of Arthur Fleck’s failed comedian, humiliated on a TV show run by Robert De Niro’s host, and day job as a clown who felt marginalized by society, that his complete decline to psychosis and criminal mastermind wrapped up his story to a satisfactory conclusion.

The lure of creating a possible franchise (just ask the movers behind the James Bond films) is irresistible. After all, there is a connection, tangential or more, of Arthur Fleck’s Joker to Batman, but drawing the linkage won’t be attempted here in any significant way.

However, in Christopher Nolan’s 2008 “The Dark Knight” a despicable criminal calling himself the Joker (Heath Ledger) turns Gotham City into such a chaotic mess that Christian Bale’s Batman’s efforts to clean up the city causes many to wonder if the caped crusader is more vigilante than hero.

Arguably, director Todd Phillips may have set out with “Joker” and now the “Folie A Deux” to build upon Nolan’s darker vision of this comic book world where a criminal mastermind was known for terrorizing the citizens of Gotham City, and to that end he seems to succeed.

Arthur Fleck is now in Arkham Asylum where he is awaiting trial for his crimes for killing several people, while also struggling with his dual identity and stumbling upon what he believes is true love with Lady Gaga’s Harley Quinn.

Even though he is a maximum-security prisoner, Arthur is allowed to join a music group in prison where he meets fellow inmate Lady Gaga’s Lee Quinzel, who later becomes Harley Quinn (seems like everyone morphs into a dual personality).

Not surprisingly, with Joker made more complex with the notion that there’s music coming from inside him, along with Lady Gaga’s trailblazing musical career, it’s no wonder that there are so many musical numbers, which ostensibly detract from what’s really a horror show.

Enamored with the Joker’s persona, Lee/Harley and Arthur strike up a musical relationship as they sing duets in the prison harmonic group, at least until an incendiary event brings that to an end.

Once outside prison, Harley Quinn is the femme fatale for Joker that is almost a cinematic cliché, but she does go to bat for him in many ways, injecting herself into the legal proceedings. Lady Gaga is nicely compelling in a role casting her as a force of nature.

In the courtroom, young District Attorney Harvey Dent (Harry Lawtey) pushes for trying Arthur on five counts of first-degree murder, while defense attorney Maryanne Stewart (Catherine Keener) argues the shopworn insanity plea based on his split personality disorder.

Brendan Gleeson acquits himself effectively as nasty prison guard Jackie Sullivan, who oddly turns out to have a soft spot by allowing Arthur to join the prison’s singing group. We have him to thank for a surfeit of unnecessary and intrusive musical numbers.

Both Joaquin Phoenix, as the Joker in the 2019 film, and the late Heath Ledger, in the role of the Joker in 2008’s “The Dark Knight,” received Academy Awards for their roles, the former as Best Actor and the latter a posthumous Best Supporting Actor.

There is unlikely to be a second Academy Award, much less a nomination, in the offing for Joaquin Phoenix, even though he has been nominated in the past for other roles. “Joker: Folie A Deux” may prove to be such dead weight as to sink any consideration this time.

For director Todd Phillips, who was nominated for Best Director, the “Joker” marked a milestone in achievement for a film nominated in almost a dozen categories that raked in more than $1 billion at the worldwide box office.

Given the pedigree of “Joker,” where the audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes was so high that if it was graded like a term paper it was earning nothing less than an A-, you would think a second turn is going to be worth a look, and for some that may be the case.

Notwithstanding the plethora of withering negative reviews of this sequel, the urge to see the film, based on experience with the original, may outweigh any reservations. Admittedly, there are positive reviews, so it is up to the filmgoer to decide whether to trek to a theater or wait for streaming.

Analytically, one can look at the ending of “Joker: Folie A Deux” as closure for the story of a madman so unhinged and detached from reality that continuing his story would be an affront to the world of DC Comics and an annoyance to the legions of Batman fans.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The Lake County Theatre Co. is planning auditions for its next production, “A Christmas Carol: A Live Radio Play.”

Auditions will be held Tuesday, Oct. 22, at 6 p.m. at the Lower Lake Schoolhouse Museum, 16435 Main St. in Lower Lake, and Saturday, Oct. 26, at 11:30 a.m. at the United Christian Parish Church, 745 N Brush St. in Lakeport.

No holiday season is complete without this iconic classic, and LCTC is excited to invite community members to be a part of this project.

“This production is a little different,” explained director Tim Barnes, “because it is a reader’s theater-style play. Actors will not be required to memorize lines. Their voices, along with the sound effect skills of a live Foley artist, will bring this story to life. Many plays are very visually appealing, but this one will be an auditory delight.”

LCTC performed a radio version of a Christmas Carol in 2008, and they are thrilled to bring it back nearly two decades later.

Auditionees should practice their British accent, and re-familiarize themselves with the story and its characters.

Performance dates will be Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 at the Lower Lake Schoolhouse Museum, and Dec. 7 and 8 at the Soper Reese Theater in Lakeport.

For more information, visit www.lctc.us, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call Laura Barnes at 707-533-3406.