“Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night!” Those words have echoed down the halls of comedy since they were first uttered by Chevy Chase on October 11, 1975. That’s when the immensely popular and long-running sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live (then called NBC’s Saturday Night) made its small screen debut. And as they say, the rest is late-night television history.

With the aptly titled “Saturday Night”, director Jason Reitman attempts to recreate the chaotic 90 minutes leading up to SNL’s 1975 live debut. Reitman puts together a mammoth ensemble and tasks them with portraying an equally mammoth array of SNL cast members, show writers, NBC executives, comedians, musicians, and personalities.

The origin story of Saturday Night Live is a fascinating one. NBC was in the middle of an contract squabble with the king of light-night TV Johnny Carson. Since 1965, the network had been running re-runs of Carson’s mega-popular The Tonight Show on Saturday and Sunday nights. After nearly ten years, Carson requested they be pulled so that he could use them during the week allowing the host more time off. Much to the chagrin of several affiliates, NBC puts a young Lorne Michaels in charge of creating a show to fill the Saturday night time slot.

Reitman (who also co-wrote the script with Gil Kenan) begins his movie 90 minutes before the show is set to go live. On the 17th floor of NBC Studios at Rockefeller Plaza, creator and producer Lorne Michaels (played by Gabriel LaBelle) scrambles to get everyone and everything ready to go. But that’s easier said than done. His rambunctious cast of relatively unknown twenty-somethings are impossible to corral. Scripts for sketches remain unwritten. There are constant technical difficulties. And he still can’t give away enough free tickets to fill a studio audience.

But worst of all, he has network executives breathing down his neck, most notably NBC’s Vice President of Talent Relations David Tebet (played by a terrific Willem Dafoe). Tebet is anxious to pull the plug on Lorne’s show and continue pumping out Carson re-runs. But Lorne has an ally in Dick Ebersol (Cooper Hoffman), the Director of Weekend Late Night Programming. Dick works as a middle-man between the network and Lorne, deflecting a lot of the heat and doing what he can to save the show. It’s work that Lorne doesn’t immediately appreciate.

Reitman plunges us headfirst into the moment-to-moment chaos, leaning on a beat-the-clock tension and even incorporating a reoccurring clock to remind us that time is the biggest enemy. Obviously we know how it ultimately ends. And considering that the entire movie is about the mayhem, the film’s big final moment comes together a little too neatly. But Reitman’s crisp dialogue and swift pacing keeps us on our toes and genuinely invested in what’s at stake.

But it’s the wealth of talent behind the supporting cast that gives the movie its energy. With so many involved, no one outside of LaBelle gets a ton of screen time. But that works in the film’s favor. There’s no overexposure and it allows Reitman to bounce back-and-forth across the studio and highlight the overwhelming stress and sheer pandemonium.

The acting is strong throughout and there are some uncanny physical likenesses that only enhance the performances. The SNL cast members are especially good with Cory Michael Smith playing Chevy Chase, Dylan O’Brien as Dan Aykroyd, Ella Hunt as Gilda Radner, Kim Matula playing Jane Curtin, Matt Wood as John Belushi, Lamorne Morris as Garrett Morris, and Emily Fairn as Laraine Newman.

And that’s just a small sample of the people we meet. Rachel Sennott is outstanding as Rosie Shuster. Nicholas Braun is a lot of fun playing both Jim Henson and Andy Kaufman. Tommy Dewey lets loose as Lorne’s pompous and abrasive head writer Michael O’Donoghue. Jon Batiste gets some good scenes playing Billy Preston while also composing the movie’s score. And J. K. Simmons is a blast as Milton Berle.

As “Saturday Night” blitzes forward we’re treated to a number of nostalgic callbacks that SNL enthusiasts will love. And sprinkled throughout are some pretty big laughs, most of which are organically generated by the show’s anarchic spirit. It still only feels like we’re getting a sketch of the behind-the-scenes experience. Reitman conflates and exaggerates while offering practically no buildup to his fairly skimpy plot. But none of that keeps us from being swept up in the creative madness, the revolving door of characters, and the sheer force of will that birthed a revolutionary show that’s still going today. “Saturday Night” is in theaters now.

VERDICT – 3.5 STARS