Lorne
Directed by Morgan Neville
An unprecedented, behind-the-scenes glimpse at the man who built the inimitable empire of comedy, shaping television and culture for generations. The documentary features exclusive footage, archival treasures, and candid interviews with the show’s most iconic cast members and writers including Tina Fey, Maya Rudolph, John Mulaney, Andy Samberg, Conan O’Brien, Chris Rock and many more. From TMDB
216 reactions from 4 sources (Bluesky, Lemmy, Mastodon, TMDB reviews) · newest Oct 15, 2026 · last updated Oct 16, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
Sentiment labels for these sources are still being hand-checked; no score yet.
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bluesky * | 7 | 13 | 127 |
| Lemmy * | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Mastodon * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| TMDB reviews * | 1 | 0 | 0 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
65 newer reactions are still waiting for a label.
22 archived X posts (Mar–Apr 2026) are kept for the record and not used.
What people are saying
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Critics, per Wikipedia
As of April 19, 2026, Lorne has grossed $270,000 at 415 theaters. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 73% of 49 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.9/10. The website's consensus reads: "While the famously tight-lipped Lorne Michaels escapes closer scrutiny yet again in Morgan Neville's affectionate documentary, this tour through the SNL maestro's career is packed with plenty of amusing and worthwhile anecdotes." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 57 out of 100, based on 14 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. John Serba of Decider described Lorne as "shallow but enjoyable," praising the documentary's…
From the “Reception” section of Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Critic context only — not part of the audience score.
Reactions
60 of 216 · most liked firstSATURDAY NIGHT may end up the best movie I see all year. It is a wild, frenetic, tightly wound ball of anxiety following Lorne Michaels through the unhinged hour and a half before the very first airing of Saturday Night Live. So many great performances, so many laughs. Reitman's best film by a mile.
positive · AI labelView post →They told Lorne Michaels in the SNL film that he can have ambition but not too much
neutral · AI labelView post →Also, since they’ve both been honored by Lorne with hosting slots, not to mention loaning Studio 8H to film first ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ finale (the fake boardroom was built on that famous stage) it would have worked.;) I wish institutionalized mediocrity was braver at times.
neutral · AI labelView post →Actually, we don't have sketch comedy shows anymore because of the First Law of Thermodynamics. Energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed. Back in the '90s, sketch comedy was tightly compressed into 30-minute broadcast windows like In Living Color and MadTV. But in 2012, a catastrophic core leak occurred at TikTok and Instagram, instantly atomizing all sketch comedy into 15-second vertical clips of people arguing with imaginary versions of themselves in a wig. Today,…
neutral · AI labelView post →Y'know I'd be more inclined to see a movie celebrating early Saturday Night Live and Lorne Michaels if he wasn't the kind of schmuck to toss free airtime to Donald Trump and Elon Musk while also never apologizing for doing so.
negative · AI labelView post →Paul McCartney closed SNL’s 50th anniversary special with some Beatles classics tonight. 👉 bit.ly/41iD1pT In 1976 he and John Lennon nearly reunited on the show when Lorne Michaels offered the Beatles $3,000 to come on. Here’s a dramatic reenactment from the 2000 VH1 movie ‘Two Of Us.’
neutral · AI labelView post →The (terrible) trailer for Jason Reitman's SNL movie reminded me that there are only 2 good SNL history movies worth making: the Jean Doumanian season, where Eddie Murphy blows up amid the show collapsing, or Lorne returning with the RDJ/Randy Quaid cast and the show nearly dying for good
neutral · AI labelView post →Not sure if my favorite part of the Saturday Night movie was when they compared Lorne Michaels to Thomas Edison or the part when they compared Lorne Michaels to Prometheus.
neutral · AI labelView post →the People’s Joker pulls zero punches. it’s clear @veradrew22.bsky.social leveraged her legal team to push commercially acceptable parody to its jokerfied limits. example: a CGI effigy of Lorne Michaels is a recurring character throughout the film & gets dunked on constantly for being a hack.
neutral · AI labelView post →Does anyone know if there's a movie in theaters I can go see where the hero is Lorne Michaels?
neutral · AI labelView post →It’s depressing enough that Lorne Michaels goes to the same restaurant every week and forces the cast to dine with him. But why film it and make us watch it. #LorneDocumentary
negative · AI labelView post →it's crazy how David Newman created the greatest 2 minutes of movie score ever, and it was for a Lorne movie
neutral · AI labelView post →Reading up on the forthcoming documentary "Lorne." Should be a hard-hitting look at the man, directed by a guy who already did an SNL documentary for SNL's network/streamer, distributed by a studio under the same corporate parent as SNL, the network, and the streamer. variety.com/2026/film/ne...
neutral · AI labelView post →(Seeing a commercial for Burger King) Me: more like the Stupid Whopper (Seeing a commercial for Geico) Me: more like Moron Insurance (Seeing a commercial for the Avatar movie) Me: more like Bumb Avatar Lorne Michaels: do you want a job on my tv program? Me: no
neutral · AI labelView post →Canada has some of the world's greatest comedians, from early Wayne and Shuster, to Rich Little, Jim Carrey, Russel Peters, Seth Rogan, Mike Myers, Leslie Nielsen, John Candy, Martin Short, Eugene Levy and "Saturday Night Live" creator and movie producer Lorne Michaels.
neutral · AI labelView post →#LetterboxdFriday #LastFourWatched #filmsky 📽 Feel like I know less about LORNE Michaels after watching this doc, than I knew before I’ll be skipping WRATH OF BECKY I’ve had a PENNIES FROM HEAVEN poster since 1981. It’s the best part of the movie. LITTLE BROTHER is already a distant memory
negative · AI labelView post →SNL in the top 15 after 51 years is fucking remarkable, despite the grind and ups and downs of almost 30 90-minute shows a year.. Saturday Night is a great film, and Lorne has been the preeminent figure in comedy for just about all that time. I'll log off now.
positive · AI labelView post →Some other things to note generally about the Mean Girls (2004) movie - it was produced by Lorne Michaels (head of SNL), written by Tina Fey and shot mostly in Toronto (despite being set in the chicago suburbs) movies.fandom.com/wiki/Mean_Gi...
neutral · AI labelView post →I'll never forget hearing Chris Rock talk about how they (SNL execs and Lorne) would get Chris Farley clean and sober to work, and then when everything wrapped (SNL or movie) they would just abandon him to fall back off the wagon. Every. Time.
neutral · AI labelView post →I want the alternate universe where The Muppet Show lasted 50 years and SNL ended with the polar bear sketch. Where Jason Reitman surreptitiously worked out his family bullshit with a "Light the Lights" movie that gratuitously dunks on Lorne Michaels for 20 minutes.
neutral · AI labelView post →Pat Hitchcock walking off with great swaths of that film is one of my favorite things in cinema. Also Marion Lorne as Bruno's mother.
neutral · AI labelView post →in the 10 yrs Reiner & Marshall were spouses: Michael McKean & David L. Lander are cast on "LAVERNE & SHIRLEY" Lorne Michaels produces Albert Brooks' 1st film REAL LIFE, co-written by Harry Shearer Marshall directs eps of her show and other series failed ABC pilot spurs first concept of SPINAL TAP ❗
neutral · AI labelView post →It was very cool and smart for Jason Reitman to make a movie about Lorne Michaels being very stressed out trying to put a show on the air everyone has known for 50 years instead of a story about the original cast, maybe the most famous group of Americans in the five years they were together
negative · AI labelView post →Horror movie about following around Lorne Michaels in the 90 minutes before the episode of Saturday Night Live with Donald Trump hosting airs
neutral · AI labelView post →There's a movie which tries to make Lorne Michaels seem cool, and portrays Jim Henson as a deeply uncool dork with the mind of a child, and I cannot stress enough that you will never be cool, Lorne Michaels. Ever.
negative · AI labelView post →Movie, TV and video game composer Lorne Balfe is to work on #DoctorWho spinoff “The War Between The Land And The Sea”. He mentioned it in an Instagram post that also offers a chance to get to see an episode being scored. www.instagram.com/reel/DKSnKib... #TWBTLATS
neutral · AI labelView post →I’ll never spell Odyssey without staring at it for a few seconds. Thanks, Lorne. Movie is awesome btw.
neutral · AI labelView post →Yeah.... I feel like that started when the multiple Hulk remakes came out in the 2000s. 🫣 It's only gotten worse since then. Making video games into film. TV shows into film. Dozens of mindless sequels. Biopics on Lorne Michaels on the big screen. 🤔 Putting profit over art for decades. Shame..
neutral · AI labelView post →Do we think Lorne has lost his touch in picking people? Or do we think it’s more rare to have movie stars in general? Or do we think the SNL audience has shrunk too much?
neutral · AI labelView post →LORNE (2026) Streaming: June 5, 2026 Peacock #Lorne whentostream.com/documentary-...
neutral · AI labelView post →Watching this marvellously playful documentary film about Lorne Michaels — such an extraordinary career youtu.be/8jAzm4a5SLo?...
positive · AI labelView post →This #WayBackWednesday, I’m reminiscing about my first Hollywood film credit 🎬: singing the Gran Turismo ending theme on Lorne Balfe and Andrew Kawczynski’s incredible score, with my dear friend @julieelven.bsky.social. 🥰 @thegranturismo.bsky.social #GranTurismoMovie #GranTurismo #FilmMusic #OST
neutral · AI labelView post →Cinematographer Brandon Trost makes #TheNakedGun look like a real movie, delivering impeccable work. He shot the shot outta it. Composer Lorne Balfe’s score made it sound like a big Mission: Impossible event film. AND Brian Scott Olds editing felt absolutely inspired by those classic ZAZ comedies.
neutral · AI labelView post →I couldn’t help but notice that his movie about SNL got no promo from Lorne, none whatsoever
neutral · AI labelView post →I would be interested to read a reported piece about the decision to make SATURDAY NIGHT, which is pretty clearly a promotional tie-in for the show's 50th season and a present to Lorne Michaels. There is no other reason for the movie to exist than as collateral advertising.
neutral · AI labelView post →I hate the movie Saturday Night. It’s an obsequious product for Lorne Michaels, and everyone involved should feel ashamed.
neutral · AI labelView post →If you're in the mood for a very Kiwi apocyalypse, come along to #AucklandFilmSociety tomorrow and chill with THE QUIET EARTH. 6.15pm, Academy Cinema, Lorne Street. AFS members only, available online at www.nzfilmsociety.org.nz/auckland.html www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jnyx... #FilmSky #MovieSky
neutral · AI labelView post →THE NAKED GUN (2025) is scored by Lorne Balfe, composer of the score for MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT, a movie THE NAKED GUN (2025) lampoons
neutral · AI labelView post →open.spotify.com/track/7AniOL... Kneecap have a D&D film inspired song with Róisín Seoighe and Lorne Balfe? Not expecting a #DnD and #Kneecap crossover....
neutral · AI labelView post →How handy for Lorne Michaels to have a show to promote his movie. #filmsky 📽
neutral · AI labelView post →Both the director of Wayne's World & Lorne Michaels wanted Guns n' Roses for this scene but Mike Meyers believed Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody' was the best/only choice, so vehemently so that he threatened to walk away from the project if it didn't happen. This is my 👑🐐 of SONGS FEATURED IN A MOVIE
neutral · AI labelView post →LORNE (2026) Streaming: May 5, 2026 PVOD (Apple, Amazon, Fandango at Home, etc.) #Lorne whentostream.com/lorne-michae...
neutral · AI labelView post →It makes me so happy that the same year we got a hagiographic movie about the start of SNL we also got THE PEOPLE'S JOKER that says basically "Lorne Michaels is deeply evil and it would be funny if he fatally slipped on a banana peel" and it's the latter that will mean much more to more people.
neutral · AI labelView post →Things I watched on the plane! Until Dawn-which is definitely a movie, and one in which a surprisingly large amount of people spontaneously burst Saturday Nighy-Lorne Michaels is an abusive maniac who he’s scarred multiple generations of comedians either a self destructive work ethic. But fun!
neutral · AI labelView post →I read the ‘Lorne’ biography and the actual story is so much more exciting and suspenseful than all the made-up nonsense in that film. Lorne discovering Alan Zweibel in a strip club 25 mins before the show goes to air just one ridiculous example. Well made, though, and can’t fault the poor actors.
neutral · AI labelView post →#Svengoolie So - if the chicken was really big, and the bees were gigantic, then why are the goats normal sized? No, not you, Lorne. I’m asking the people watching the movie.
neutral · AI labelView post →Having just finished Susan Morrison’s “Lorne,” I naturally had a hankering to re-watch a movie centering around the making of a live, weekly NBC sketch show produced at 30 Rock.
neutral · AI labelView post →remember when Pete davidson did ketamine every day for 4 years, hopped from relationship to relationship, drove 90mph into a house with his 18 year old girlfriend in the car when he was 29 without being breathalyzed at the scene, then got a Judd Apatow movie and show produced by Lorne Michaels?
neutral · AI labelView post →Every movie produced by Lorne Michaels and featuring an SNL character or cast member. (This is not a joke skeet.)
neutral · AI labelView post →Meanwhile … no one is interested in the Lorne Michaels documentary, surprise! variety.com/2026/film/ne...
neutral · AI labelView post →The Rutles, a Beatles parody created by Eric Idle and frequent Python collaborator Neil Innes for a different comedy sketch show. Their 1978 TV movie All You Need Is Cash (produced by Lorne Michaels!) was the lowest-rated network show in the US the week it aired. 😝
neutral · AI labelView post →It's got a proper film score, too, by a proper film composer. Lorne Balfe. None of this AI-generated, "wall-to-wall" white noise, Netflix docuseries garbage. Actual, real music. Maybe it's just me — fixating on the music again — but still. @lornebalfe.bsky.social @dansheehan.memyon.org @netflix.com
neutral · AI labelView post →Reading Chris Kattan’s memoir, Baby, Don’t Hurt Me. Evidently, almost every SNL character film that Lorne Michaels had a hand in creating has a movie poster with a blue sky and clouds in the background.🤯
neutral · AI labelView post →I think it’s funny that Jason Reitman’s SNL movie was obviously timed to open to pay tribute to Lorne Michaels on the occasion of his retirement from the show and instead he’s like “I ain’t fuckin LEAVIN”
neutral · AI labelView post →The first track from the official #GranTurismo movie soundtrack just dropped 🔥 Huge congrats Lorne Balfe, Andrew Kawczynski & team! Even more stoked now for the movie to come out next week, and to be a part of it! 🥹🎙️🎼 https://open.spotify.com/track/4R1PoazFxGIKeHsgI0SQgp?si=nnDP5TokQbCX4hJ3N6WfpQ
neutral · AI labelView post →#LetterboxdFriday #LastFourWatched Lorne doc got me to watch Three Amigos, which was on my Shame List forever. Chortles ensued. Picked Redux Redux out of a lineup cold, like video store browsing back in the day. It’s a firecracker, I dug it a lot. Saw The Invite today, still chewing on it.
neutral · AI labelView post →Peacock has announced the titles launching on their platform in June 2026, including the SVOD premiere of the Morgan Neville documentary LORNE, and the original movie premiere STRUNG. Here's the full breakdown: whentostream.com/heres-whats-...
neutral · AI labelView post →I think we need to treat "SNL sketch expanded into a movie" movies as separate categories for which Lorne Michaels is to blame. He gets a pass on that for me.
neutral · AI labelView post →The Taming of the Shrew ep stars Norma Crane (Golde from FIDDLER ON THE ROOF) as the Calamity Jane type character. This reminds me that she was in a TV movie version of NINETEEN EIGHTY FOUR with Eddie Albert as Winston Smith and Lorne Greene as O'Brien, which is some wild, wild casting
neutral · AI labelView post →So I have a very distinct memory as a young child watching Battlestar Galactica (the Lorne Greene as Adama version) as a movie in theatres, but my American friends say it never happened. But I grew up in Canada and I am 100% sure it happened. So I looked it up.
neutral · AI labelView post →
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