Lorne, 2026.
Directed by Morgan Neville
Featuring Lorne Michaels, Tina Fey, Maya Rudolph, John Mulaney, Andy Samberg, Conan O’Brien, Chris Rock, Mike Myers, Colin Jost, Sarah Sherman, Steve Martin, Paul Simon, Kristen Wiig, Seth Meyers, Bill Hader, Michael Che, Kenan Thompson, Dana Carvey, and Jimmy Fallon.
SYNOPSIS:
Lorne Michaels, creator of Saturday Night Live (1975), offers unprecedented access to the man who built and sustained the institution for five decades.
Lorne Michaels (born Lorne Lipowitz) is a guarded man, which naturally makes him difficult to document. For director Morgan Neville, apparently, that’s a challenge to take head-on, who playfully acknowledges within Lorne itself the hurdles he will have to work around, such as the fact that he doesn’t want a camera on him or to be miked up even when within his professional environment (which comes with all sorts of oddball times for routine meetings, writing sessions, dinners, and more). We know that he has his own family; they aren’t here. There is also an amusing montage early on of various Saturday Night Live cast members being asked fairly basic questions about Lorne, most of whom have different answers, once again implying that no one really knows this comedy-producing giant.
With that in mind, Morgan Neville has taken the approach of recording whatever he can each day, building up to an episode of Saturday Night Live, while interviewing everyone from past and present cast members to close friends, such as Paul Simon, his neighbor to this day after decades. This includes brief looks at creative sessions between celebrity hosts ranging from Timothee Chalamet to Emma Stone and others, including the infamous mostly nonverbal meetings where the producers decide which sketches to cut from the show, how to order them, and where to place commercial breaks, all done on a bulletin board with color-coded sticky notes.
The idea here is to ascertain some level of understanding of Lorne Michaels through a combination of observing his unorthodox day-to-day routines (which includes going to bed at 4 AM and sleeping in until noon) when that classic, decades-long running comedy show is in season and a fast paced but mostly comprehensive look at the history of the ups and downs of it (there is also a five-year period where he was removed from it entirely, seemingly directionless with failing ideas in the meantime), complete with clips from sketches involving John Belushi, John Candy, Chris Farley, Chevy Chase, Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, and many others who had their careers launched simply from working with him.
Rather than take a dry, serious-minded approach throughout the numerous talking-head interviews (which are excellently spliced with archival footage of sketches and relevant movies, like, say, Mike Myers and Dana Carvey in Wayne’s World), most of these talks, fittingly, yield revelations through comedy. The actors don’t really know the man, Wikipedia has incorrect information (something that might have been corrected since then), and Conan O’Brien shows up providing appropriately silly voiceover Lorne Michaels impersonation work to some animated bits providing more context to the past (coming with the funny touch of the NBC Peacock rendered as the evil pet of a villain, who, in this case, are often the executives).
What stands out is that through those dark times, something popular always rose again with a new cast. More importantly, Lorne Michaels comes across as someone capable of changing with the times, welcoming celebrity guests and musical acts regardless of whether he understands why they are big in the cultural zeitgeist. He is also encouraging of controversy and committed to inviting guests from all backgrounds, even if that means those on the opposite political spectrum. It’s also noted that while the brand of comedy isn’t necessarily coarse, there are occasional shocking moments and conversations with censors. Creativity among cast members also appears to be rewarded, with everyone here offering up plenty of kind words about his character personally and professionally, even if both of those can, as has been mentioned, be difficult to crack.
Naturally, that also means Lorne sometimes comes across as a puff piece for someone with a fair share of unpleasant stories and behavior. The film is also less a documentary of him and more of a Saturday Night Live retrospective that still struggles to fully make a breakthrough on the man himself. Morgan Neville certainly comes close, as more access seems to be granted along the way, including a visit to his Maine home and gardens, where he lives during the off-season to get away from the chaotic hustle and bustle of New York City and the job. Above all, it’s another documentary from the filmmaker that finds a clever way into studying the subject befitting of who they are and what they are known for; it is funny, a neat peek behind the curtains of the sketch comedy show, informative, and insightful enough about Lorne Michaels in a professional sense.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder
