mr . saturday night ( 1992 ) * * * 1/2 directed by billy crystal . written by billy crystal , lowell ganz , babaloo mandel . editing , ken beyda . music , marc shaiman . production design , albert brenner . produced by billy crystal and peter schindler . cast : billy crystal , david paymer , julie warner , helen hunt , mary mara , jerry orbach , ron silver , sage allen , michael weiner , jerry lewis , et al . a columbia release . 110 min . rated r ( language ) . language is constantly inventing or reviving expressions . two current ones are illustrated by comedian billy crystal playing comedian buddy young , jr . and dedicating his life to in-your-face jokes that keep pushing the envelope . created by crystal in 1984 for hbo and repeated on " saturday night live , " buddy now gets full , favorite-comic treatment in crystal's excellent directorial start . the character is fine honed , assuming you can say this about someone whose humor is not exactly wildeian or shavian . " mr . saturday night " is the biography of now-aged buddy and his brother stan , told in alternating flashbacks and flashforwards , with nearly equal time given to the present . the two yankelman boys are broad , in-house comics who keep their family in stitches . at their first public appearance on amateur nite ( sic ) , stan , 18 , gets cold feet , but remains in the wings , encouraging abie , 16 , who , at the last second , has taken on the name of buddy young , jr . nice , quiet , sensitive stan , stays on with the raucous buddy as the latter serves his apprenticeship and reaches specialized fame in the borscht belt's circuit , culminating at grossinger's in 1950 . while buddy convulses his audiences , stan , in the background , is a perfect definition of " factotum . " he is figaro to buddy's count almaviva , his manager , gofer , soundboard , as well as the butt of his brother's whims and ego . occasionally too becomes an unwilling , resentful pimp , as when he brings to buddy an admirer , elaine ( julie warner ) . stan is attracted to her but it is buddy who marries the charming young woman . buddy rises to becoming an increasingly important las vegas performer , though always billed below the headliners . in a clever bit , his appearance on the ed sullivan show is a catastrophe , since he follows the beatles before a frenzied , hysterical audience of youths . still , he does get tv celebrity as " mr . saturday night , " though never attaining superstardom . actors never stop acting in real life , but this isn't always evident . most comics are non-stop performers too , but the nature of their trade is such that their off-stage jokes are always obvious . buddy , if not the ultimate , is the archetypical new york jewish comedian , conceived , written and played with great inside-track knowledge and much affection , colossal warts and all . he is a monomaniacally compulsive jokester 24 hours a day , to the point that only one-liners and gags count for him . being so set in his tunnel-vision ways , he becomes self-destructive , flubs his chances , loses sponsors and exploits even those who love him ( brother , wife , daughter ) , through neglect and jokes at their expense . anything for a laugh , any time . buddy's compulsive , incessant joking does not spare events such as his wedding , the birth of his child , his being at his dying mother's side , even her funeral too . yet on those occasions the film manages sometimes to transcend the tacky and the crude , and can introduce bittersweet moments of true pathos . the movie is a two-hour homage to generations of ethnic jokemeisters and their shticks . it would take a computer to analyze all the ingredients , the name comics who enter this amalgam . yet , crystal's buddy is both a composite and a comic in his own right . but he is no human being by common norms . like many one-track-mind professionals , he is self-centered , has no personal dimensions , or , for that matter , a meaningful private life . in vague terms which place much of the onus on buddy , we learn that his daughter's life has been a failure . his wife , the lovely elaine , was introduced in 1950 as the perfect mate : witty , gutsy , lively with repartee . . . later though , when we meet her repeatedly , she has receded into the background . her personality has disappeared . whilst all those around buddy fade into stooges or supporting characters , the movie makes an exception by sketching with deft irony and much affection buddy's mother , thus salvaging some family values . mostly though , it shows with sharp realism the perpetual insecurity of showbiz people , even at the height of their reputation . above all , the movie works in , as its second major , as well as most original element , the buddy-stan relationship , ambiguous yet clear , built on narcissism and monstrous insensitivity on one side , antagonism , devotion and frustration on the other , and a weird kind of love under the surface . as stan , david paymer quietly steals every scene he appears in . when , " tired of shlepwork , " he retires , the film almost acquires a tragic tinge . it is an osca-caliber performance . billy crystal's supercharged acting is striking too , as a monochord , more obvious tour-de-force . the excellent playing extends to the supporting actors : young agent helen hunt who tries , against the comic's own self-defeating nature , to give the aged buddy a second chance ; jerry orbach as her boss ; or ron silver as a big-time film director who used to idolize buddy . the gallery of characters is also reinforced by the precise physical casting of two youngsters as the teen-age brothers , and by the make-up of stan as an old man . parchment-faced buddy however , in spite of the much-advertised , lengthy cosmetic sessions , made me uncomfortable . it felt as though the eyes were peering from behind a plastic mask the story's structure tends to be a bit systematically repetitious . it hammers its points , especially the swinging pendulum between rapport and alienation in the two brothers . in the last act you sense that the writers are desperately seeking a wrap-up . and since movies cannot let go of the odd notion that performers , whether young or old , deserve more pathos and sympathy than anyone else , " mr . saturday night " too oversentimentalizes the actors and the showbiz profession . as they should , the jokes run realistically from crude to indifferent , with occasional fresh gems . equally true-to-life is buddy's repertory , strong on insults but cautious on political issues . a hilarious , lightning-fast scene with bread rolls would have made charlie chaplin proud of crystal . but there is much more than rib-tickling to this suprisingly complex and ultimately affecting view of a lifetime in schlock . " le mauvais gout mene au crime " ( stendhal ) edwin jahiel's movie reviews are at <a href= " http : //www . prairienet . org/ejahiel " >http : //www . prairienet . org/ejahiel</a> 
