The 55th Nashville Film Festival has arrived, and I plan on bringing you all the coverage from the festival. On today’s menu, we have a movie by Jason Reitman about the moments leading up to the first ever SNL show called Saturday Night. Does it live up too the hype that has been surrounding the film post-festival? Let’s dive in.

Plot: Tensions run high as producer Lorne Michaels and a ferocious troupe of young comedians and writers prepare for the first broadcast of “Saturday Night Live” on Oct. 11, 1975.

How do you capture the chaos of the moments leading up to the first Saturday Night show? For a little over an hour and a half, Jason Reitman perfectly depicts this in one of the most chaotic, adrenaline-filled movies of the year. Honestly, coming out of the festivals, this movie scared me because of the hype, but after watching it, I am fully invested in seeing how far this movie can go this awards season.

On the surface, Saturday Night shouldn’t work for many reasons. It doesn’t say much, but for me, it didn’t have to. This isn’t an origin story, and Reitman brilliantly chooses not to deliver it as such. Lorne Michaels is attempting to assemble a cast of misfit comics to host a show on Saturday Night with no structure. The problem is that the wide range of personalities clash with one another while the executives and even those close to him threaten to pull the show without it even going on air.

You might as well lock this in as one of the movies in the SAG ensemble category at the upcoming Screen Actors Guild Awards. Reitman enlists long-time partner and casting director John Papsidera to put together a cast that has to portray comedic icons. The duo didn’t miss any of the casting and even allowed them to explore characters that didn’t feel like carbon copies. While the cast stood out independently, Gabriel LaBelle as Lorne Michaels and Matt Wood as John Belushi were my two MVPs.

Ahead of the film, Reitman announced to audiences that Jon Batiste had created the score for the movie on set. They would shoot for the day, all hang out, and he would make the score. The score represents pure chaos in the most poetic way. Batiste’s score is one of my favorites of the year, and I can’t wait to own it on vinyl.

Ultimately, Reitman puts together one of the best movies of 2024. The chaotic nature of how it is shot is to represent the moments leading up to the first show. So the unbalanced, oft-kilter approach allowed Reitman to shoot the film in this tight, almost clastphoerbic space that never allows the audience to come out for a breath of air. This is a must-see on the big screen on opening weekend with a theater full of people.