Director: Jason Reitman (Juno)
TIFF Presentation: Special Presentations (Canadian Premiere)
Country: USA
Year: 2024
Runtime: 109 minutes
Language: English
Cast: Gabriel LaBelle, Rachel Sennott, Cory Michael Smith
The Deal:
90 minutes before the very first live broadcast of NBC’s Saturday Night Live, an unruly company of young comedians and writers gear up to take the stage of what is now an iconic fixture in pop culture.
Reitman shot the film on 16mm, and Saturday Night is edited in a manner in which you feel like you are living out the fear and anxiety of its characters – especially LaBelle (who is playing Lorne Michaels).
It’s a fun ride of dealing with network execs who want the show to fail and have it replaced with a rerun of The Tonight Show, humorous renditions of now-famous but difficult comedians, and a red-pen marker happy censor.
Watch This If: You love the behind-the-scenes workings of the television industry and want to see the chaos that occurred before the first episode of SNL.
Rating: ★★★★★
Saturday Night (2024) opens across Canada on Friday, Oct. 11.