I’ve long been a big fan of director Jason Reitman with his film Juno being an all time favorite. Naturally I was pretty excited for his new film Saturday Night about the first broadcast of Saturday Night Live and for the most part he delivers a pretty fun movie.

While it is directed well by Reitman the true star of the film is the terrific cast including Kim Matula playing Jane Curtain. It was fun for me to see her because I interviewed her a couple of years ago for Hallmarkies Podcast. The various impressions of the original cast are spot on with Ella Hunt playing Gilda Radner, Dyla O’Brien as Dan Aykroyd and JK Simmons in a memorable turn as comedian Milton Berle.

The main aspect holding Saturday Night back is the decision to present the film in real time as the 90 minutes before the first episode airing. This requires us to believe an outlandish number events all happened within this 90 minute time period. Because there is so much it makes things happening feel a little phony and fake but it was all done with such energy and personality that it didn’t bother me too much.