Directed by: Ali Abbasi
Distributed by: Briarcliff Entertainment
Written by Anna Harrison
65/100
Who the hell wants a Trump biopic?
His supporters eschew the so-called “Hollywood elite,” his critics are sick of hearing about him, and imitating his distinct style of speech was old eight years ago. Thus when Ali Abbasi announced “The Apprentice” to the world, I was among the many who groaned and rolled their eyes, and yet it seems that Abbasi did the impossible: this Donald Trump movie doesn’t suck. In fact, it’s pretty good—and the reason it’s pretty good is because this isn’t a movie about Trump, not really. Rather, Gabriel Sherman’s script tells that classic tale of Frankenstein and his monster.
The Frankenstein in question is none other than Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong), who spies up-and-coming real estate mogul Donald Trump (Sebastian Stan) and, admiring Donald’s gumption, decides to take the young man under his wing. Donald clearly aspires to greatness; when we meet him, he has taken a date to an exclusive restaurant, and spends most of the time rattling off the names of every important member present with awe and envy in his voice. But he doesn’t just sit and grow green with jealousy—he pushes for more, even if it means going against his ineffectual and casually cruel father, Fred (Martin Donovan), and that relentlessness catches Cohn’s eye. Soon enough, Cohn is inviting Donald to rub elbows with New York’s elite, and Donald is accidentally stumbling into drug-fuelled gay orgies.
Stan and Abbasi wisely eschew the cheap Trump mimicry of “Saturday Night Live” for what might be his first portrayal as a non-caricature. Donald is a fish out of water in Cohn’s circle: he’s sober, a contrast to his alcoholic brother Freddy (Charlie Carrick), and stumbles over his words more often than not, especially when he’s tasked with collecting the rent from his father’s tenants, but the men he’s surrounded by have few rules and fewer inhibitions. Several scenes would not have been out of place on “Succession,” only Jeremy Strong finds himself in the Logan Roy role this time around as he teaches Donald how to be a killer. Donald’s gradual transformation echoes the shifting landscape in America, as we see Nixon claim he’s “not a crook,” then admit to his wrongdoings, and finally witness Reagan crowning Wall Street as America’s saving grace. Likewise, Donald begins “The Apprentice” shocked at Cohn’s propensity for blackmail, but with each scene, the persona of “Donald Trump,” crafted by Cohn and his ilk, begins to overtake plain old Donald until no glimpse of his old self remains. “Don’t touch me,” he snarls through tears at wife Ivana (Maria Bakalova) after Freddy’s death, in a miraculous bit of acting from Sebastian Stan. With those words, Donald dies and Trump rises. It’s the American Dream.
Alas, as Trump begins to emerge and Donald sinks into the shadows, “The Apprentice” loses steam, and Sherman’s script becomes a bit too self-satisfied. It’s no accident that this coincides with the declining screentime of Jeremy Strong, whose Cohn—by this point—has become totally eclipsed by the man he once thought of as a son; the other supporting actors, like Bakalova, are good, but no other character grabs the attention like Cohn does. One eye-rolling scene involves Roger Stone (Mark Rendall) presenting Trump with some Reagan merch bearing the phrase, “Let’s Make America Great Again.”
The movie tries and fails to cast a wider net and, in doing so, renders itself toothless when it should have stayed laser focused on its central Faustian relationship. The third act is at its best when reuniting Trump and Cohn, the latter of whom has been forced to grapple with the AIDS crisis and his own internal contradictions as a gay man who delights in hedonistic orgies while regularly flinging homosexual slurs around his Republican buddies with what seems to be genuine disgust and disdain. One harrowing scene in particular sees the two side-by-side in a limousine, barricaded in by those protesting the handling of the AIDS crisis: Trump asks the driver to run the protestors over and looks over to Cohn, expecting him to laugh alongside Trump; instead, Cohn stares straight ahead, outside fists pounding on the window as, without moving a muscle, Jeremy Strong portrays years of denial silently crashing down upon Cohn. As Trump loses his humanity, Cohn nearly gets his back. This is “The Apprentice” at its best: a fable of American greed and waylaid intentions. It’s just a shame that the Trump of it all got in the way.
“The Apprentice” Trailer
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