‘The Apprentice’ Review

American Presidents have long served as subjects of curiosity for film makers, though usually their movies come out years after the given subject’s presidency. The idea being that in those interceding years, the artist has time for sober reflection on the presidency, the country, the man, such that a film can provide some new perspective or insight. When Oliver Stone’s “W” was released in October of 2008, it was harangued as a rushed attempt at cheap entertainment, profiting off the luridness of depicting and ridiculing a sitting president.

Of course, Donald Trump is no ordinary President. There have only been a few years since his first term, yes, but he has been in the public consciousness for decades, serving as the self-mythologizing embodiment of American capitalism’s basest impulses.

‘The Apprentice’, Ali Abbasi’s Donald Trump origin story, attempts a difficult task of portraying the evolution of one of American history’s most divisive presidents without seeming to take a side. The result could have been a hit piece, portraying Trump as an unapologetic monster from the beginning, fitting with how many already view him. Or it could have been an apologia, a sympathetic view of an innocent if ambitious man who becomes a monster as a survival instinct. Abbasi’s film doesn’t quite go in either of these directions, and yet unfortunately the resulting film is just not very interesting.

The film opens in the 1970s, with a young Donald Trump (Sebastian Stan) trying to impress his date with the wealth and power of all those who surround them in a membership only club. Across the room, he notices that a commanding lawyer, Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong), has taken an interest in him. In these early scenes, Trump is sloppy, unsure of himself, but sure of his ambition, while Cohn is the shark. Despite eventually meeting Trump’s first wife, Ivana (Maria Bakalova), it is this relationship, between Trump and Cohn, that is the focus of the film. Both Stan and Strong give tremendous performances of shameless, narcissistic, despicable characters. If you were to synthesize the speech and mannerisms of Roy Cohn with young Donald Trump, you get a remarkably cogent representation of current Donald Trump.

Cohn takes Trump under his wing, and these early scenes, with Cohn teaching Trump his methods and philosophies, are the best part of the film. We see Trump taking on Cohn’s confidence and viciousness as his own, evolving into the man who one day becomes President. It’s a phenomenal performance from Sebastian Stan, playing Trump as a man who is evolving over time, always performing for himself and others, willing whatever he says and wants to be truth, regardless of the reality.

After Trump and Ivana marry in 1977, the movie jumps ahead in time to the 1980s, and unfortunately the movie itself loses its focus. The insecure man of ambition in the beginning has given way fully to the cocky, arrogant, irredeemable villain that is 1980s Donald Trump. His relationship with Roy Cohn is virtually gone, he is unspeakably cruel to his wife, and he blusters his way from business deal to business deal. But the film fails to address the why of any of this. We go from an ambitious but shallow young man to the hopeless egomaniac, but this transformation is left a mystery. How did he become so cruel? Was this always part of him, that has only become unleashed after achieving success in business? What happened to his relationship with Cohn? Is it just a matter of Trump being a parasite, who throws Cohn aside once he’s learned all he feels he can? These questions are left unanswered, thus the film fails to achieve any new insights or perspective that would justify its existence.

But the movie does not offer anything new about Donald Trump, does not offer insight into how or why he was able to navigate all of his career, personal, and moral failings. After the initial set up with Trump and Cohn, the film is satisfied with just presenting the selfish and egotistical man we’ve all come to know. The style is distracting, with much of the footage being made to look like a grainy, 80s home vide. And in case you’re becoming bored with the subject matter, the film works to build out the Donald Trump Cinematic Universe, introducing and name dropping people who ultimately serve no purpose in the film, but the storytellers know that a modern audience will recognize from our current circumstances (Roger Stone, anybody?).

Since he was first elected President in 2016, Donald Trump has commanded attention. This movie posits that this craving for eyes was present even in the 1970s, when he was just a young man, afraid of his father, with dreams of making a name for himself in revitalizing New York. Unfortunately, despite stellar performances from the two leads, ‘The Apprentice’ doesn’t offer enough substance to justify spending two more hours watching Donald Trump.

The Apprentice
Rated R for sexual content, some graphic nudity, language, sexual assault, and drug use.
Running Time: 2 hours and 2 minutes

Director Ali Abbasi
Writers Gabriel Sherman
Stars Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Strong, Maria Bakalova, Martin Donovan
Rating R
Running Time 122 Minutes
Genres Biography, Drama, History