"Lorne" REVIEW

Published on 4/17/2026 

Written by: Braylon Mitchell 

Directed by: Morgan Neville 

Cast: ... 

Plot:  Lorne Michaels, creator of Saturday Night Live (1975), offers unprecedented access to the man who built and sustained the institution for five decades.

REVIEW 

I'm a big SNL guy. Shocking, right? I'm a young straight white American male that loves to write comedy, of course SNL has had a huge influence on me and I consider myself a big fan. I still watch the show regularly, and love it. Some very talented, funny writers and cast members currently in 30 Rock. Anyways, I was bound to like this film. It's built for SNL fans, all audiences could enjoy it and the masses will enjoy all of the big names that have something to say in it, but its the SNL fans that will respond to this documentary with the most enthusiasm. I've enjoyed Morgan Neville's docs in the past, he's very well known in Hollywood for making entertaining celebity biopic documentaries and has clearly been in high demand as of the past couple years- his films for the most part play it very safe, but they're light and fun. This one isn't much different, except that fun is elevated to another level when you have an all star roster of most of the most popular comedians of the past fifty years to edit between and your subject is a man who famously doesn't open up to the public. He still keeps his guard up quite strongly, but this film does do a good job at tapping into what makes Lorne Micheals a living legend- constructing an image of him that is both aware of his mythos and allows us a more personal look into his life/contributions to the world of comedy. This is a sure-fire crowdpleaser, a nice love letter to the man who is SNL, and is all around a pretty good celebrity documentary. 

THREE BEST ELEMENTS

• The humor. With cast members past & present, former hosts, industry friends, etc who'd be surpised that this documentary where most of its talking heads are world-class comedians ended up having so much great humor. A lot of the very best laughs don't just come from the carefully picked hilarious sound bites, but from the conversational antidotes captured throughout. Also, in my theater the ultization of the actual clips from SNL sketches throughout the decades were guaranteed laughs with my audience. Huh, almost like that show has been and still is funny. 

• The score. Noticably good, energetic and touching score. The score elevated many scenes, which is obviously the goal for film scores in general but especially with documentaries. 

• The editing. I'll never cease to be impressed by the editing of any ol' documentary, but particularly with docs like these that ulization so much archival/pre-exisitng footage. 

WORST ELEMENT 

• It went on a little long, at a certain point I felt like it didn't have as much to offer as it did earlier on in the film. 

RATING

7/10

If you're an SNL fan you should watch it, buddy!