Freeze Frame: “Saturday Night” (R), “The Apprentice” (R), “The Last of the Sea Women” (PG)

The chaotic buildup to the first episode of the classic variety series “Saturday Night Live” is the basis for filmmaker Jason Reitman’s engaging account, “Saturday Night.” A cast of largely unknown actors play the familiar original cast and crew. Gabriel LaBelle, best known from his role in “The Fabelmans,” plays young and naive producer Lorne Michaels who attempted to shake up late night television in 1975 and faced formidable hurdles. The hedonism of the era is on full display in “Saturday Night,” a skillfully filmed, wildly entertaining and often hilarious comic drama.

The formative years of Donald Trump’s career and his relationship with notorious, law-flouting lawyer Roy Cohn is the basis for the controversial biopic, “The Apprentice.” According to legend, Trump was tutored by Cohn and adopted his rules: “Attack, attack, attack. Never admit guilt or defeat. Do anything to win.” It’s well made and intriguing, and Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong are excellent as Trump and Cohn who became friends in the decadent 70s. How accurate it is is hard to know, but whether “The Apprentice” is a searing exposé or a hatchet job is ultimately in the eyes of the beholder.

The Apple TV+ documentary “The Last of the Sea Women” profiles a group of Korean women called the “haenyeo.” They’re free divers, mostly in their 60s, 70s and 80s, who harvest seafood for their communities. The film focuses on the difficulty of their work, their rapidly declining numbers and the new perils they face with climate change, pollution and Japan’s release of radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear plant. These inspiring women give new meaning to the term “hardy.”

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