Donald Trump is one of the most controversial and divisive figures in contemporary American politics at the moment. And he has dominated the political landscape for the better part of a decade. In the lead-up to the 2024 election it’s easy to see why he and his campaign have tried to ban this drama. The Apprentice is the English language debut from Iranian born Danish director Ali Abbasi (the 2022 Persian crime drama Holy Spider).
The Apprentice has been written by TV journalist and writer Gabriel Sherman (Alaska Daily) and this well-researched biopic charts Trump’s formative years and his pre-White House rise to power via his aggressive development of the New York real estate market. Sherman had interviewed Trump a number of times during his career. He draws on those insights to shape this fictionalised treatment of Trump’s early rise to prominence in New York.
The film takes its title from Trump’s own successful reality TV show, which ran for 15 seasons from 2004-2017. But here ironically Trump himself is the apprentice, being tutored by pugnacious and unscrupulous lawyer and mentor Roy Cohn. Cohn himself was a controversial figure. In the 50s he prosecuted the Rosenbergs for spying, and was also a key figure in the 1950s McCarthy era trials prosecuting alleged communists, communist sympathisers and homosexuals and which destroyed reputations and livelihoods. Cohn was also the lawyer who represented powerful Mob figures. In the 80s he was disbarred for his corrupt practices.
This film is largely set in New York in the 70s and early 80s. Donald Trump (played here by Sebastian Stan) is a young real estate agent who is trying to break away from the shadow of his powerful father Fred. He wants to establish himself as a developer; hoping to leave his mark on the city of New York. Trump and Cohn met by chance in a swanky New York club and the slick powerful lawyer took the naive but ambitious realtor under his wing. In 1973 Cohn (Jeremy Strong) took the young Trump under his wing. Cohn exerted a Svengali-like influence over Trump. He helped Trump take on the US government over allegations that his company refused to rent some of their properties to people of colour. Cohn instilled in the young Trump his aggressive style that has come to dominate American politics. According to Cohn, the way to become successful was to always attack, deny everything and never admit defeat. This mantra became Trump’s key playbook.
Abbasi depicts the New York of the time as a decaying, sleazy and corrupt cesspool through some superb production design and the integration of archival footage. Cinematographer Kasper Tuxen (The Professor and the Madman) does a great job of giving the material a nostalgic 80s look and feel with the grainy brownish colour palette. The film however includes a rather gratuitously gruesome scene depicting Trump undergoing liposuction and surgery, which will have some in the audience looking away.
Stan (the Captain America films) depicts Trump as an amoral businessman and captures his narcissistic personality, but he also captures his insecurities and vanity. Strong (TV series Succession) delivers a charismatic but chillingly precise performance as the predatory, slick and sharp Cohn; capturing his bullying style, his cold persona, his quietly menacing nature. The chemistry between the two is palpable and brings the material alive. Martin Donovan also makes the most of his unsympathetic role as Donald’s father, the condescending and aloof Fred Trump, who grows envious of Donald’s success and wealth. Maria Bakalova (Borat Subsequent Moviefilm) does what she can with a largely thankless role as Trump’s glamorous but increasingly bored first wife Ivana, a former model turned interior decorator and designer.
Abbasi himself has stated that he didn’t intend the film to be a “hit piece” on Trump himself, but rather an exploration of the influences that helped to shape him into the man we see today. The film concludes with Trump working on his book The Art of the Deal with a ghostwriter and staking claim to coining Cohn’s mantra on his own. The Apprentice is an unflattering portrait of Trump; but it’s ultimately a little bland however. One is left to wonder what a filmmaker of Oliver Stone’s incendiary calibre would have done with this material.
Greg King
Other reviews you might enjoy:
- Two documentaries – Martha: A Picture Story and Where’s My Ray Cohn?
- Fahrenheit 11/9 – movie review
- Armageddon Time – movie review
Greg King has had a life long love of films. He has been reviewing popular films for over 15 years. Since 1994, he has been the film reviewer for BEAT magazine. His reviews have also appeared in the Herald Sun newspaper, S-Press, Stage Whispers, and a number of other magazines, newspapers and web sites. Greg contributes to The Blurb on film