Jason Reitman delivers her sharpest, most well-crafted film today with Saturday Night, a look at that fateful night on 11 October, 1975 when the world was introduced to the Not Quite Ready For Prime Time Players with NBC’s Saturday Night.

Lorne Micheals (Gabriel LaBelle) is working to juggle a live to air sketch show that may or may not make it to airtime. With a handful of brilliant comedians who don’t all get along, Micheals has to deal with the show’s runtime, it’s multitude of sketches and musical performances, getting one performer to sign his contract, the NBC censor, and a band of executives led by David Tebet (Willem Dafoe).

Almost running in real time, the story follows a hectic ninety minute rush to air, and everything that can go wrong seems more than willing to. Belushi (Matt Wood) won’t sign his contract, Chevy Chase (Cory Michael Smith) is already beginning to think he’s too big for the show, Dan Akroyd (Dylan O’Brien) is a deligthful eccentric, and the set isn’t finished yet!

The camera adds a frenetic pace to the film, constantly movinng following characters around as we are plunged into the not-quite organized chaos of a show in production. The camera smooths out during moments when Micheals feels more in control, and spins up violently when things seem to be getting more chaotic.

Fast and funny all of the actors have their counterparts down, portraying them with a genuine love that doesn’t push any of them into caricature. There are moments when you’d be hard-pressed to tell the actor from the comic legend they are playing. Rachel Sennott is utterly charming as Rosie Shuster, Ella Hunt seems to be channelling Gilda Radner, Lamorne Morris gets a scene-stealing moment as Garrett Morris, Emily Farrin is delightful as Laraine Newman, Kim Matula is Jane Curtin, Nicholas Braun plays a very straight-edged Jim Henson, and Matthew Rhys plays the show’s first host, George Carlin.

A delightful rush, the film culminates with a will they or won’t they go to air and you know how it ends, but the reveal of the trials and tribulations behind the scenes lets you know that the moment was truly earned.

Smart, kinetic and polished Saturday Night is going to to hit screens twice more during the festival, Friday and Saturday and hits screens nationwide in October.