Saturday Night

 

    Co-written and directed by Jason Reitman (who interviewed surviving cast and crew members), this is a nostalgic look at recreating the premiere episode of Saturday Night Live, fifty years ago.

     Mr. Reitman assembles a talented group of actors, who, while not perfect replicas of the original cast, certainly capture their essence. The film stars Cory Michael Smith as Chevy Chase, Ella Hunt as Gilda Radner, Dylan O'Brien as Dan Aykroyd, Emily Fairn as Lorraine Newman, Matt Wood as John Belushi, Lamorne Morris as Garrett Morris, Kim Matula as Jane Curtin and Tommy Dewey as Michael O'Donoghue.

      Also starring as Lorne Michaels is Gabriel LaBelle and Rachel Sennotti as Rosie Shuster.  In addition, the film features Finn Wolfhard, Nicholas Braun (as Andy Kaufman and Jim Henson), Cooper Hoffman, Matthew Rhys, Willem Dafoe, Jon Batiste and J.K. Simmons.

      It's a great cast and Mr. Reitman captures the insanity of what it must have been like putting the first episode together when the concept was new and nobody knew what to expect. While we may never know exactly what really happened that night, one can only imagine it's probably close to the truth.