There’s a fascinating story to be told about Donald Trump’s Big Apple ascendancy.
“The Apprentice” sniffs around the edges but isn’t interested in that yarn. It’s about channeling nearly a decade of anti-Trump rage into one film.
Mission … accomplished?
That devalues bravura turns by Sebastian Stan as Donald Trump and “Succession” alum Jeremy Strong. Their performances are taken out at the knees by partisan fury.
Trump’s meteoric rise begins in the 1970s, a time when we’re told he had to collect rent payments in person for his aloof father Fred Trump (Martin Donovan).
This Donald Trump isn’t as cocksure as the current model, nor the mogul who penned “The Art of the Deal.” He finds his footing courtesy of Roy Cohn (Strong), a legendary fixer who finds a way to win no matter the odds.
Lie. Go on offense. Crush any flicker of morality. He finds an apt pupil in Trump.
Why, it’s like Donald Trump is the Apprentice years before his reality show of the same name!
So far, not bad. Cohn’s soulless shtick dates back to the McCarthy era, and Strong makes his methods seem almost admirable in their effectiveness. Watching an unsteady Trump finds his cultural footing is equally intriguing.
Stan dials down the familiar Trump tics, helping us access the character. Why, he almost seems human, albeit a deeply flawed one.
Almost. And it doesn’t last long.
Once Trump finds real estate success his legend, and ego grow. It’s here where the film loses interest in storytelling and goes for the jugular.
Trump’s jugular, to be precise.
There’s nothing consequential left beyond attacking Trump from every imaginable angle.
The screenplay, by notorious Fox News critic Gabriel Sherman, repeatedly echoes 2024 amidst its talking points. Sherman loathes Fox News, but he’d be better served by turning off MSNBC for a while.
In one scene Trump picks up a Reagan-themed button with the phrase, “Make America Great Again” emblazoned on it.
Subtle.
How the “very fine people” hoax didn’t make the final cut is a miracle.
That button moment has plenty of company. Much of the dialogue plays out like a story written today, not in the roaring 1980s. It’s fine to mirror Trump’s initial rise to his current political brand. “The Apprentice” wouldn’t matter if it didn’t attempt a variation of that.
The film, shot via an ’80s-friendly aspect ratio, looks consistently garish (on purpose). This is a villain’s origin story, and the palette hammers home that perspective. The score is equally off-putting, embracing tones that crawl under the skin.
The message? “It’s alive … it’s alive!”
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The Frankenstein’s monster unleashed on Manhattan will later torment not the village but America in toto.
Why else would director Ali Abbasi bring up scalp reduction, liposuction and impotency? Aren’t Trump’s “evil” deeds enough?
Cheap shots, all.
The film’s already infamous rape scene, debunked by the real Ivana Trump before her 2022 death, is hard to watch. Seeing Trump verbally dismiss her in a separate sequences is almost as cruel.
It’s akin to the media forever lying about Trump. If the mogul’s reign was so traumatic why not just repeat the facts?
Every time “The Apprentice” inches closer to humanizing Trump it takes a large, calculated step back. One scene finds him talking to wife Ivanka (Maria Bakalova) while a nanny tries to get young Don Jr. to stop crying. Papa Trump briefly holds the child, his touch soothing the toddler’s pain.
When the lad starts to cry again he’s quickly handed back to the nanny. That cycles happens so many times in “The Apprentice” it would make a frat-friendly drinking game.
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Stan’s Trump isn’t a satirical swipe but an honest attempt to recreate the bruising ego behind all things Trump. And it’s mostly glorious. The actor isn’t given an actual person to portray but a caricature. It’s the only reason the performance falls short of being awards-season worthy.
The film can rightly savage Trump, and the mogul is no one’s idea of a saint. The best stories give their villains a dollop of humanity. That’s Storytelling 101.
Strong is another story.
The actor’s enigmatic Cohn is a callous delight. We’re not rooting for Cohn and recoil at his sinister touch. Strong still captures a unique screen monster with every heavy-lidded glare. The real Cohn’s final years, denying his sexual appetites and AIDS diagnosis, give Strong’s Cohn an unlikely dimension.
Empathy.
The real Donald Trump has many facets. The ego comes first. Always. There’s a generosity, too, that tracks back decades. He’s very funny, something his rabid fans adore. He also can be rude, crude and abominable. Few would deny that.
Oh, and he’s pretty good at making deals. Most of these positive elements are in short supply.
That’s sad, since a movie combining all of Trump’s tics would make a helluva movie. As is, “The Apprentice” is a helluva hit piece. Watch accordingly.
HiT or Miss: “The Apprentice” squanders two mighty performances at the altar of Trump Derangement Syndrome.
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