Review: Long Live the State is nostalgic and fun

Matthew Perniciaro’s Long Live the State landed at Tribeca to a packed house, and you could feel the nostalgia humming in the room. The film isn’t just a tribute to MTV’s cult-favorite sketch troupe “The State”; it’s a warm reunion where all 11 members finally say the things they were too busy—or too young—to voice three decades ago. After four whirlwind seasons the group scattered, yet when you stack their individual résumés—Reno 911!, Wet Hot American Summer, Night at the Museum, and on and on—it’s hard not to sit back and marvel.

To his credit, Perniciaro carves out space for every single member. That matters, because during the original run the spotlight often gravitated toward well-memed figures like Ken Marino or Michael Showalter. (Decades later, strangers still shout “I want to dip my balls in it!” at Marino—MTV really did want its own SNL catchphrases.) On screen, each comedian gets a personal moment that feels earned rather than obligatory.

The doc doubles as a quick-fire career roundup: David Wain’s prolific run of studio comedies, Michael Patrick Jann’s Drop Dead Gorgeous (how did I never notice he directed that?), and Showalter’s pivot into directing prestige fare like The Eyes of Tammy Faye, which nabbed Jessica Chastain her Oscar. Showalter admits he bailed on the 2024 live reunion because the stage no longer feels like home—a candid bit that makes the group dynamics richer.

Perniciaro also nails the soundtrack, layering Pixies, The Jesus and Mary Chain, and other MTV staples over archival clips. It’s a sly wink, given how the original series took ages to reach DVD because of music-rights headaches, but here the songs instantly drop you back into mid-’90s late-night TV.

Importantly, the film isn’t just for die-hard fans. If you never connected the dots between “The State” and blockbusters like Night at the Museum, you will now. The doc balances laugh-out-loud memories with real poignancy, then digs into the messier stuff—the in-house politicking, the scramble to get sketches green-lit, the rifts that formed when factions emerged.

The first act rewinds to NYU, when they called themselves the New Comedy Group and were hustling small gigs all over campus. Grainy footage shows how a Jon Stewart-hosted MTV series (You Wrote It, You Watch It) opened the door to their own show, a step Perniciaro covers in meticulous, breezy detail. Forty-five minutes in, you finally hit the MTV launchpad.

Critics once panned both The State and many spin-offs—only for titles like Wet Hot American Summer and Reno 911! to become cult institutions. Long Live the State acknowledges those bumps without turning into a glossy love-fest. The result is a funny, heartfelt, occasionally raw portrait of a comedy collective that never quite fit the industry mold—and is all the more beloved for it. Here’s hoping the film lands wide distribution; plenty of people still don’t know what they were missing.