THE REVOLUTION BEGINS AT 11:30.

On October, 11th, 1975, a group of inexperienced comedians and actors are 90 minutes from crafting the groundbreaking first episode of Saturday Night Live.

Television history was written that night, and according to this account (which got Dan Aykroyd’s blessing) it was chaotic as hell. Period details are meticulously recreated and the 1970s look of the film helps sell it, along with a cast who echo the latterly famous people they play and bring magnificent energy to a story about how television at the time needed the youthful kick that SNL provided.

Intense and brilliantly directed fly-on-the-wall entertainment.

2024-U.S. 109 min. Color. Directed by Jason Reitman. Screenplay: Gil Kenan, Jason Reitman. Music: Jon Batiste. Cast: Gabriel LaBelle (Lorne Michaels), Rachel Sennott (Rosie Shuster), Cory Michael Smith (Chevy Chase), Ella Hunt, Dylan O’Brien, Emily Fairn, Finn Wolfhard, Willem Dafoe, Matthew Rhys, J.K. Simmons, Tracy Letts, Brad Garrett. 

Trivia: Co-produced by Reitman. Batiste also appears in the film as Billy Preston. Nicholas Braun plays both Jim Henson and Andy Kaufman (the latter was meant to be played by Benny Safdie, but he had to drop out).

Last word: “This was a really complicated screenplay to assemble because we not only had to track 80-something speaking characters, but we also have to track things like the sofa that catches on fire, and then another sofa that is retrieved from the writer’s floor and brought down to [Studio] 8H and then ends up on screen. These things began to create almost like a mesh, and that mesh of moving characters, of barnyard animals that are inexplicably in the corridors and specific props, furniture, sketch concepts that are being exercised, all of these began to come up like you would raise a barn. One day we looked at what we had and realized that enough skeleton, enough superstructure, was [there] for us to start really honing down and then sinking our teeth into.” (Kenan, Slash Film)