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This review was originally published on September 1, 2024 out of the Telluride Film Festival.
We are recirculating it now timed toSaturday Nights theatrical release.
Its a level of adrenaline usually reserved for test pilots and heroin addicts was how he put it.
But theres quite a bit of mythmaking going on here as well.
Everythings been played up (and sometimes made up) for maximum drama and chaos.
(The Front Runnerwas something of a critical and financial bust, butI was transfixed by it.)
Were told he has a vision hestold he has a vision but even he doesnt really believe it.
Theres a touching truth here about the whole creative process.
This is our shot, Rosie, Michaels tells her.
Itsashot, she replies.
She also tells him that, while theyre married, shes not his wife.
(Even though Lornes real last name is itself Lipowitz, as she eventually reminds us.)
Ella Hunt gets Gilda Radners sweetness just right but we see little of her actually performing.
It would take forever to go through the whole cast here, but theyre mostly aces.
Matthew Rhys, in his brief moments, gives George Carlin a chest-thumping, confrontational machismo.
So,SNLwas there to make Carsons life easier, not to compete with him.
(Though, being Carson, he did reportedly have an adversarial relationship with the show.)
This too might be a print-the-legend situation.
Whats more, sometimesyou have to imaginethat the whole world is against you to get anything meaningful done.
