Director: Ali Abbasi
Writer: Gabriel Sherman
Stars: Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Strong, Maria Bakalova
Synopsis: The story of how a young Donald Trump started his real-estate business in 1970s and ’80s New York with the helping hand of infamous lawyer Roy Cohn.
Many films, such as Rocky, The Pursuit of Happyness, and Minari, are about the American Dream—a concept that involves equal opportunity, peace, and success, which every American strives for. Usually, these narratives focus on an individual or individuals who have been dealt a bad hand and have to work hard for a better life, not only for themselves but also for their families. However, what if there was a telling of the American Dream in which an individual wasn’t dealt a bad hand; therefore, they didn’t have to work harder, but rather dirtier as a way to achieve something that, to most, is unfathomable? This is what Ali Abbasi attempts to do in his follow-up to his Cannes hit, Holy Spider, with The Apprentice, a story about the creation of Donald J. Trump.
The Apprentice begins with a speech from Richard Nixon regarding his involvement with Watergate, stating, “People have got to know whether or not their President is a crook. Well, I’m not a crook. I’ve earned everything I’ve got.” Shortly after, we are shown a very young Donald Trump (Sebastian Stan) in a private and exclusive club in which he is the youngest member in history. This catches the eye of Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong), who invites the young Trump over to sit at his table. Once Trump tells Cohn he is in real estate, he realizes that he is the son of Fred Trump, a businessman who is currently being sued by the Government and the NAACP for segregation in his apartment homes, “Trump Village.” Trump listens to Cohn’s advice and eventually approached him to become his new lawyer.
From the first interaction between Trump and Cohn, it’s evident that both Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong anchor the film. At this point, Trump is young, hungry, motivated, and insanely impressionable, and a sense of wonder shines through Stan’s performance taking in every small detail and locking it away to use for later. When Cohn begins to find dirty ways to get ahead, Trump, who is hesitant at first, takes notice, and it’s clear how Cohn unlocks the side of Trump willing to do whatever it takes to get even further ahead. The first half of this film engages with Stan and Strong in a way that displays a rise to power. The more Cohn takes, the more Trump grows into the monstrous figure he is known to be. There is that sense of wonder in a young Trump, but there is also a slimy and conniving side of Cohn that Strong can tap into with vile ferocity. For the first half of this film, there isn’t much that hasn’t been done before, crossing off many of the traditional procedural biopic tropes that must be hit in every version of telling this story. It can feel thin narratively, giving off more of a quick lesson into how Trump built his empire and the back alley deals and blackmail that helped him along the way. However, once this film transitions into its second half, and Donald Trump has fully become a power-hungry shell of his old self, The Apprentice truly begins to take off.
Ali Abbasi, who brings a ‘70s-era, almost documentary-like flair to the film, never holds back from displaying Trump in a frightening light. Donald Trump attempted to file a lawsuit against this film, with people on his legal team claiming it “should never see the light of day,” the latter half is exactly why he wouldn’t want anyone to see it. The erection of the Trump Tower and the people that Trump has in his pocket gives him a sense of invulnerability, allowing him to believe that he can say and do what he wants. Nothing matters to him, not his wife, who he calls unattractive before sexually assaulting her, not his brother, who was sent off by Trump right before his death, and not even Roy Cohn, the man who got him to the position he is in, and the man who also notices the monster he is becoming. One of the quotes from this movie, “In life there are killers, and there are losers,” personifies Trump as he is killing off anything vital to him in the quest for power. However, he doesn’t care what happens to these people because the more he grows (literally and figuratively), the less human he becomes. Abbasi’s film becomes almost Frankensteinian in that the monster has now been set loose, which is everyone else’s problem to handle.
During these moments is when both Stan and Strong shine brighter than ever. Roy Cohn falls ill, and even though this figure doesn’t deserve sympathy, Strong portrays him so that, as a viewer, you are reminded that he is still a human. There’s an emotional center in Strong’s transition between monster and human that causes you to feel hurt for a character who caused so much pain. However, the opposite could be said about Trump, as there is a volatility in him that Stan embraces in a haunting way. Donald Trump might be one of the most impersonated people on the planet with his distinct voice and gestures, but what Stan pulls off is nothing short of remarkable. He doesn’t just have the look, the gestures, and even, at times, the voice down that every other impersonator can do; he completely captures the person that Donald Trump is. Sebastian Stan delivers the performance of the year, embracing one of the most terrorizing and petrifying villains of the year all the way to the final shot.
The Apprentice isn’t a film that will tell you anything you don’t, or shouldn’t, already know. It’s stylized well by Ali Abbasi, with some of the performances of the year from Jeremy Strong and Sebastian Stan, but where The Apprentice excels is as a reminder for the people who may have forgotten just how evil Donald Trump can be. It is a biopic with no remorse for its subject in a way that should serve as a warning sign to all who see it.
