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Yesterday, the historic Beacon Theatre hosted a packed, well-dressed crowd for the opening-night screening of the Tribeca Film Festival, Bao Nguyen's Live from New York!, a four-decade-spanning history of Saturday Night Live. A crowd-pleasing doc (and no doubt a Lorne-pleasing one: SNL's long-time exec was beaming in attendance), the film triggered waves of applause and even a sentimental pang or two. After the screening, somewhat unexpectedly, the screen rose to reveal a live band and Ludacris, who got the audience on its feet. Here are five takeaways from the night's festivities.
RECOMMENDED: Full coverage of the Tribeca Film Festival
1. Everybody loves SNL From the documentary's cold open featuring the classic first-season cast awkwardly warming up, to recent scenes of the current players crafting laughs, the film had something for everyone. If you were keeping count, the film was mostly fair in apportioning its running time, though Billy Crystal was definitely shorted. No Fernando? Crystal's 1985 hit single "You Look Marvelous," a milestone for the show, went unmentioned, though not the viral videos "Lazy Sunday" or "Dick in a Box."
2. The chill is still on NBC's Brian Williams Choking up the flow of riotous interviews, Williams's inclusion—ostensibly to add a little news-desk perspective—stopped the film uncomfortably in its tracks. The audience didn't know how to respond and waited the segment out in silence. Credit goes to director Nguyen for standing by his man, but when Live from New York! hits its inevitable theatrical window, perhaps on pay TV, expect an edit or two.
3. The show's legacy is more political than anything Essentially an advertisement for itself, Live from New York! was never less than celebratory. Yet an extended thread devoted to SNL's political satire was redemptive. Impressions ranging from Chevy Chase's stumbling Gerald Ford and Dana Carvey's George Bush to Tina Fey's peg-on Sarah Palin (crosscut with Palin's actual speeches) cemented the show as a live wire of commentary. Some of these skits affected real-life campaigns. The whole documentary should have been about this.
4. SNL healed the city after 9/11 Or, more modestly, helped it to laugh again. Touching on that historic September 29, 2011, episode, as Rudy Giuliani, cops and firemen stood iconically in resilience, Live from New York! hit its most moving passage, with some welling up onscreen (and off).
5. Ludacris made no sense The rapper/Furious star has tons of hits and succeeded in turning Tribeca's opening night into a party. But wasn't this an opportunity to bring out a classic SNL musical act—a Paul Simon or Justin Timberlake? The postscreening moment was primed for a lovefest: Any comedian that agreed to do some stand-up would have killed.