The Apprentice

The-Apprentice
The Apprentice

Synopsis: The tale of the young Donald Trump who launched his real-estate enterprise in New York in the 1970s and ’80s with the assistance of the notorious lawyer Roy Cohn.

There are many movies such as Rocky, The Pursuit of Happyness, and Minari, that in some way relate to the concept of the American Dream, which is a dream American that signifies equal opportunity, peace, and prosperity. Generally, these stories are about one or more people who have seen tough times and have worked hard, not just for themselves, but for their families as well. But let’s say, there was a story about the American Dream, and the main person in that story was dealt a winning hand; someone who achieved, what most would consider, the impossible, simply by working dirty instead of working hard. This is what Ali Abbasi aspires to do in his sequel to the Cannes success, Holy Spider, The Apprentice, which traces the making of Donald J. Trump.

The Apprentice opens with Richard Nixon’s address: “People have got to know whether or not their President is a crook. Well, I‘m not a crook. I‘ve earned everything I have. What a way to describe his colorful life that ends in more controversies than accomplishments.” With such remarks, it is not surprising that the first scene shows a young Donald Trump (Sebastian Stan) who started his career by becoming the youngest member of a private club and he was a pretty young member indeed. This makes Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong), who invite the young Trump to his table. What is interesting is when Cohn learned that Trump is a real estate businessman, he recognized Trump as the son of Fred Trump who has been sued by the Government and NAACP for racial discrimination in Trump Village. Trump follows Cohn and then over time approaches him to be his new attorney.

Starting with Trump and his relationship with Cohn, right throughout the Shark Attack, it is clear that Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong make up the thick of the film. Now look at Stan acting, young Trump, hungry, focusing on every little detail and locking it in for later use, a sense of awe envelops the performance. There is a very descriptive and graphic depiction of how Cohn unlocks that side of Trump that does not care what it takes to get ahead and when to draw the line – the first half of Shark Attack deals with Stan and Strong gradually displaying a rising power. When Cohn is there, Trump gets built as the monstrous character he is now. There is, in a way, a sense of wonder in young Trump, much like easily influenced Stan, but there is also that slimy conniving side of Cohn that Strong has no qualms showing because, in the first serial, one does not need to mention sequels because there hasn’t been anything groundbreaking or revolutionary, feeding off many of the cliched textbook bioclips that have to be addressed in every telling of the story.

The narrative does feel a bit flimsy, almost as if it is a brief introduction to how Trump managed to amass wealth through seedy deals and blackmail to the end. But when this film shifts into the second half and Donald has been fully converted to an empty shell of a power monger, that is where The Apprentice truly starts to shine.

A somewhat fascinating style even then, Ali Abbassi stands out as someone who portrays Trump in a menacing way, always without any reservations. While Donald Trump did try to be compliant with the law and file a lawsuit against this documentary, spokespersons claim that it “scarcely should appear in the daylight”, one of the unwritten laws of the universe is probably the reason he overturned it. The sight of the building Trump Tower has put a lot of people in Trump’s lap, and he feels secure believing he can speak and act the way he wishes to. For him nothing is sacred, not even the ugly woman known as his wife whom he foreplays before rape, not even the brother he sent off just in time for him to die, and certainly not even Roy Cohn who brought him into the business and who sees the monstrous man he is turning into. “In life there are killers, and there are losers,” one of the quotes, represents Trump perfectly as he’s obliterating everything that matters to him in order to gain more power.

Nevertheless, he is indifferent to the fate of these people since the more he expands, both in the physical and metaphorical sense, the less human he is. Abbasi’s film paves the way for almost a Frankenstein narrative in that the monster has been unleashed and that is everyone else’s issue to deal with.

Likely these are the moments when both Stan and Strong truly stand out. Roy Cohn has become sick and while this is not a character that deserves any sympathy, Strong manages to capture him in a way that, as an audience, you understand that he is human regardless. There is a heart in Strong’s twist of becoming a beast and coming back that makes one sympathize with someone who has brought suffering. There is more banter where emotions are identified in Trump, which is something Stan appreciates in a very creepy way. Donald Trump might be among the most impersonated individuals on this planet today, but what Stan achieves is simply jaw dropping. He doesn’t just have the look, the gestures, and even the voice that every other impersonator uses; he convinces the character that is actually Donald Trump. Sebastian Stan, as far as I am concerned, makes the best performance of the year moving in and out of one of the most monstrous and most terrifying characters of the year until the very last frame.

The Apprentice is not a feature film that will reveal any new, or rather should not be new, information to you. It is properly stylized by Ali Abbasi, with the best performances this year from Jeremy Strong and Sebastian Stan, yet the strength of The Apprentice is to remind those people who may have been dazed how wicked Donald Trump really is where it is. It’s a biopic that does not afford any redeeming qualities for its subject and this should ring an alarm to all who watch it.

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