Film

Love, Gilda

Name: Love, Gilda
Genre: Documentary
Released: 2018
Cast: Gilda Radner, Chevy Chase, Amy Poehler, Bill Hader, Maya Rudolph

A tender, intimate documentary about Gilda Radner's life and legacy, built from her own diaries, audiotapes, and home videos alongside testimonies from the people who knew her best. It's a portrait of a revolutionary comedian whose generosity and vulnerability made her unforgettable—a film for anyone who loves SNL history, or anyone who's ever wondered what it costs to make people laugh.

TMDb rating

3.6

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love a documentary built from someone's own private tapes and diaries, where the subject's voice carries the film and the warmth of old friends fills in the rest.

Skip it if you want a critical, investigative look at Saturday Night Live or a sharp account of its politics; this one stays affectionate and keeps its gaze close to Radner herself.

What it asks of you: Eighty-four minutes of mostly gentle, reflective pacing, with you listening to recordings and reminiscences more than watching a plot unfold. Some of the material touches on illness, so it carries a quiet undertow beneath the laughter.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

SMILF2017

Created by and starring Frankie Shaw, this is comedy about vulnerability and messy life that honors the emotional honesty Gilda brought to comedy. It's the spiritual descendant of what she pioneered—funny because it's true.

But The show is darker and more abrasive than SNL; if you want nostalgia for 1970s sketch comedy lightness, this deliberately dismantles that tone.

Broad City2014

Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer's work carries Gilda's DNA—a willingness to be unglamorous, awkward, and completely themselves. Comedy made from observed life rather than setups.

But It's set in a completely different world (contemporary New York) and has a rhythm and sensibility shaped by the internet era, not 1970s television.

I Love You to Death1990

A film Gilda appeared in near the end of her life, directed by Lawrence Kasdan. A strange, dark comedy that shows her range beyond SNL and her ability to hold dramatic weight.

But It's a peripheral project in her filmography and not always easy to find or easy to sit with—the tone is deliberately unsettling.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Love, Gilda

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Eating Raoul1982

Both Gilda and Bartel weaponized bad taste and physical comedy against the pretense of respectability; both believed funny could be ugly, and ugly could be funny without apology.

A pitch-black comedy where a suburban couple commit murder, directed by Paul Bartel. Has Gilda's fearlessness about being revolting and unfeminine on screen, but pushed into satire and horror. Proof that sketch comedy energy could shatter into darker forms.

But It's genuinely transgressive and crude in ways that make it look backward from a modern lens; the satire is meat-and-potatoes obvious compared to Gilda's subtlety.

The Comeback2005

Lisa Kudrow's mockumentary series about a faded actress rebuilds itself around a performer willing to be unflattering and strange. The DNA traces back to Gilda's willingness to wreck her own image for a laugh.

But It's uncomfortable and cringe-forward in a way that deliberately avoids warmth; Gilda's comedy had a different heart entirely.

Ghostbusters II1989

One of Gilda's final film roles, a mainstream comedy that shows her in ensemble comedy alongside people who adored her. Worth watching for the documentation of her presence at that moment.

But The film itself is uneven and nowhere near the quality of the first; watching it feels like archaeological work rather than pure enjoyment.

Pretty Little Liars2010

Both trust that watching someone invent truth in the moment, live and without protection, is comedy's highest form. Gilda's diaries show she had that same need to document the unguarded self.

A Japanese television program where ordinary people improvise scenes based on prompts, no script, real stakes. Pure improv performed by people who aren't professional comedians, capturing the immediacy and vulnerability that made Gilda's SNL moments sacred.

But It's in Japanese, it's buried on streaming, the format will feel exhausting if you don't care about watching people work without a net, and subtitles are dense.

A Brighter Summer Day1991

Like Gilda's diaries, Yang's film argues that paying close attention to an ordinary person's inner life—their confusions, their desires, their small gestures—is the highest use of cinema. Both refuse to look away.

Edward Yang's four-hour portrait of teenage life in Taiwan in the 1960s. Enormous but moved by the same thing that animates Love, Gilda: the tenderness available to us if we really watch people we love, really pay attention, really remember.

But It's slow, it's in Mandarin with subtitles, it's four hours long, it contains violence, and the emotional reward is accumulative rather than immediate. You have to commit entirely.