Next year, 2025, will mark the 50th anniversary of Saturday Night Live (SNL), and NBC is planning a big live special in February to celebrate. In the meantime, though, Director Jason Reitman, whose own father, Ivan, had a close connection to the sketch comedy series, has made Saturday Night, out in theaters now. The film careens in “real” time towards the moment the first episode of SNL aired in 1975, and stars Gabriel LaBelle (The Fabelmans) as Lorne Michaels, along with a vast ensemble of exciting young actors playing the original SNL cast and well-loved veterans like J.K. Simmons and Willem Dafoe in supporting roles.

After premiering at the Telluride Film Festival to mixed-positive reviews, Saturday Night has been doing okay but not exceptionally well at the box office. Will that hurt its Oscar chances? Will the film meet the same fate as many seasons of SNL, with everyone too busy debating whether or not it’s good that they forget to appreciate the thing itself?

In this episode of The Long Take Review, P.T., Greg, Antonio, and I dissect our own reactions and value judgments of the “put on a show” psuedo-biopic comedy. We shoutout our favorite performances, share our own personal histories with SNL, and contemplate the film’s use of time and space. After our usual Oscars Watch, we do our own SNL cast member draft! After you listen to the episode, vote in the poll below for who you think won.

We (hastily) go into SPOILER MODE at the 23:19 minute mark. If you’re still not yet sure whether you want to check out the film, pause there! Our SNL Cast Draft, which should also be spoiler free, starts at 1:09:06.

Image Credit: IndieWire

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