Film Review – The Apprentice

The Apprentice
Imagine taking the scene between Matthew McConaughey and Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) – in which the former gives advice to the latter on how to be a successful stockbroker – and expanding it out to feature length. What you end up with would probably resemble The Apprentice (2024). Written by Gabriel Sherman and directed by Ali Abbasi, the film traces the rise of a little-known real estate tycoon named Donald Trump, and his exploits throughout the 1970s and into the ‘80s. Along the way, we learn of his relationship with his attorney Roy Cohn: How Cohn took Trump under his wing, taught him everything he knows, and eventually became a victim of Trump’s ruthless practices.
It goes without saying that the film arrives at a very calculated time, as Trump is in the midst of a heated election campaign against Kamala Harris. It’s accurate to say that Abbasi, Sherman, and the rest of the production don’t hold anything back in portraying Trump in a negative light. But what makes The Apprentice fascinating is that it does not portray the former President as a caricature. It would be easy to make him out to be a buffoon – to simply show him as incompetent. But the film doesn’t do that. In fact, it does the opposite. This version of Trump is an ambitious, conniving, cold blooded egomaniac who would do anything to succeed, even if it means betraying his friends and family. He knows what he is doing and doesn’t care who he hurts if it means building his empire. Because of this, Trump seems much more dangerous.

Sebastian Stan plays Trump devoid of any parody. This is not a performance you would see on SNL – Stan inhabits the character in grounded and realistic terms. Yes, he has the hair, the hand movements, and the gait that we are familiar with, but he doesn’t play anything for laughs. Early on, Stan makes Trump into a dough-faced go getter, sucking up information like a sponge. We go from him fighting the D.O.J. over housing discrimination, to his dream of building Trump Tower in Manhattan, his turbulent marriage with Ivana Trump (Maria Bakalova), and getting into the casino business in Atlantic City. With each step, Trump gets more cunning and abrasive. He learns how to bend the rules and force officials to agree with his wishes, and as a result Trump gets addicted to his own success. Yes, we learn a little bit about his family background – his relationship with his father as well as his brother – but the film never feels like a psychological study of Trump’s motivations. He exists simply to be a “winner,” regardless of how he attains it.
The depiction of Roy Cohn is one of the film’s biggest strengths as well as one of its major weaknesses. Jeremy Strong plays the attorney – at least in the first half – as a slimy, immoral weasel. Strong gives the character a monotone delivery, and often holds himself so still that he appears statuesque. It’s an excellent, downplayed performance. The narrative paints Cohn as the major influence that molded Trump into who he is today. We see this in the Three Rules Cohn lives by: 1) Always be on the attack, 2) Never admit defeat, and 3) Always claim victory. It’s not too difficult to see how Trump has applied these lessons to nearly all aspects of his life.
But what makes the character of Cohn problematic (in terms of storytelling) is how he is handled in the second half. Initially, we meet Cohn at his most powerful – keeping politicians in his back pocket, black mailing city officials to approve of Trump’s real estate plans, as well as secretly recording every conversation to be used as leverage. But there is a dramatic shift in the second half, as Cohn loses control of his protégé. It’s a “Frankenstein’s Monster” situation, where Cohn’s own philosophy get used against him. The issue is that this switch paints him to be a tragic, almost sympathetic character. The writing loses its focus on his development – we aren’t sure if we are meant to hate Cohn or pity him. How do we find compassion for a person that took such wicked actions while in power? As effective as Strong’s performance is, Cohn ends up being a question mark.

Abbasi’s direction (alongside Kasper Tuxen’s cinematography) captures the late ‘70s and early ‘80s with a grainy, handheld, documentary-like aesthetic. The visuals look like they were shot on video, as though what we were watching was recorded on VHS tapes. There is a level of intimacy in many of the scenes, in how the camera closes in on Trump’s face during big, life changing moments or during times of quiet contemplation. It’s as though we stumbled on a home video showing Trump at his most joyous, most vulnerable, and most despicable. The film does not shy away at showing him at his ugliest, particularly in his relationship with Ivana. His vanity and selfishness are his defining traits. The sequences in which he gets liposuction to lose weight or surgery to fix his thinning hair may seem comedic at first, but they also show the heights of his self-absorption.
The art direction and production design deserve recognition, especially in the scenes featuring Trump Tower. It would be a good guess that permission was not given to shoot at the actual location. The recreation of the building – notably the interiors – were impressive. From the main atrium, the waterfall wall, the golden paneling, to the infamous escalator Trump would eventually ride when he announced his presidential run, were all rendered with incredible style and flair. The entire building is an ode to ‘80s consumer culture – big, bright, majestic, and expensive.
The Apprentice hints a little too much at Trump’s future endeavors in politics (at one point he examines a Reagan pin that reads “Let’s Make America Great Again”). It’s the climb up the social and economic ladder that makes the film so engrossing. Seeing an immoral man learn the tricks of the trade, incorporate them into his own work, and then twist them into something sinister was riveting and scary in equal measure. No question, this movie will be divisive. The production had to start a crowdfunding campaign to get it released because distributors were afraid of backlash from Trump. But the effort was worth the risk. Although it has its rough spots, the film succeeds at showing how a capitalistic society gave birth to one of the most controversial figures in modern American history. This is the story of a man who learned how to be a villain and thrived at doing so.