The Apprentice
While seated in an exclusive New York City restaurant identifying all the important people seated around them to impress his date, a young Donald Trump (Sebastian Stan, "Captain America: The Winter Soldier") catches the eye of the notorious Roy Cohn ('Succession's' Jeremy Strong), who sends his secretary, Russell Eldridge (Ben Sullivan), over to ask the man to join his table. Donald Trump is about to become “The Apprentice.”
Laura's Review: A-
After the shocking result of the 2016 presidential election, political journalist Gabriel Sherman (TV's 'Alaska Daily'), who’d interviewed Trump several times, began to hear about how the real estate developer had formed his persona under the tutelage of Roy Cohn, the man behind McCarthyism among other things, and began a period of intense research for his feature screenwriting debut. Director Ali Abbasi ("Border," "Holy Spider") makes his English language debut with a film that reflects both the gritty, crime-ridden 1970’s New York City and the ‘Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous’ veneer it took on in the 1980’s as well as the political environment which helped engineer the change. That is the vivid setting for two phenomenal performances.
The Donald Trump we first meet personally collects rents door to door in his father’s tenement buildings, getting partial payments and dodging pots of boiling water. He is under the thumb of Fred Trump (Martin Donovan, "Tenet"), who is unwilling to underwrite his son's dream of purchasing the boarded up Commodore Hotel and converting it into a new one which will reflect neighborhood landmarks in a mirrored surface. Stan, who suggests Trump rather than mimicking him, portrays the younger man as more soft spoken and socially awkward, Cohn's circle, which includes the likes of Fat Tony Salerno (Joe Pingue), chuckling at his naivete. But when Cohn suggests he and his father sue the Department of Justice rather than fold under the discrimination allegations it's brought against them, Trump is all ears and pesters the man until he agrees to take the case, literally following Cohn into a men's room to get his attention.
Strong invests Cohn with the steely propulsion of a shark, his dialogue delivered in a monotone tinged with underlying threat or leveled sarcasm. His coaching of Trump during a media interview held over the phone in the back of the limo is but one demonstration of how he modeled the real estate heir into a mini-Cohn, pushing the man's adjectives to bigger and bigger heights - his new hotel will not just be the best in New York or the U.S., but the World! And when Donald expresses fear over having announced it without having his father's approval, Cohn calls him out as weak, advising ‘Create your own reality – the truth is nebulous,' chilling words. Soon Trump will be steamrolling his dementia-addled dad into signing over the family trust to him exclusively, over his mother Mary Anne's (the elaborately coifed Catherine McNally) objections. Cohn instructs Trump in his 3 rules of winning - 'Attack. Attack. Attack.,' 'Admit nothing. Deny everything.' and 'Claim victory and never admit defeat., rules we have seen Trump employ in his political career to the detriment of the country. Cohn also introduces his protege to a young Roger Stone (Mark Rendall), who brags about the slogan he came up with for Reagan's campaign, Make America Great Again. Cohn's influence even extends to Trump's orange coloring, the man sporting the reddish bronze results of tanning bed sessions. When Cohn mentions Trump's 'fat ass,' Trump's Coke turns into Diet Coke. Cohn helped him get a an enormous tax abatement, political corruption costing New Yorkers hundreds of millions (the next mayor, Ed Koch (Ian D. Clark), will be less of a pushover on Trump Tower), to build that first hotel and suggested Trump cozy up to Rupert Murdoch (Tom Barnett).
Trump's inability to show compassion or loyalty can be seen in the treatment of his brother Freddy (Charlie Carrick), the airline pilot their father belittles as a 'bus driver with wings,' who would come to Donald for help and be given cash for a hotel room. Trump courts Czech model Ivana Zelnickova (Maria Bakalova, "Borat Subsequent Moviefilm") because she's hard to get ('never admit defeat'), almost losing her over the harshness of Cohn's pre-nup, later telling his wife he no longer fins her attractive before raping her in a fit of anger. But perhaps his biggest betrayal is of that of the man who did, quite literally, make him. Trump clearly knew Cohn was homosexual, wandering awkwardly around one of the man's gay parties ('What do you do?' he asks Andy Warhol (Bruce Beaton)). Watch Strong's face flicker with something resembling fear as Trump instructs their driver to barrel through a group of AIDS protesters. When Cohn asks that Russell be given a room in Trump's Grand Hyatt Hotel, the man who never charged him for legal services will be sent a bill and the irony is thick when Cohn tells him he's lost his 'last shred of decency.' When he gets sick himself, he'll be brought to Mar-a-Lago on his birthday where he'll learn those platinum and diamond Trump cuff links he's been gifted are cheap fakes. Abbasi and his editor cross cut Cohn's funeral with Trump undergoing liposuction surgery and a scalp 'lift.'
The Iranian/Danish filmmaker's outside-looking-in approach couches the Trump/Cohn relationship as a uniquely American story, director of photography Kasper Tuxen ("The Worst Person in the World") filming it with the type of 1980's television aesthetic the world watched 'Dynasty' and 'Dallas' in with an assist from Martin Dirkov, David Holmes and Brian Irvine's electronic score.
"The Apprentice" drops the veil of illusion Donald Trump's television series projected. Sebastian Stan shows us a man who might have turned out very differently, had it not been for the influence of a bad actor.
Robin's Review: B+
Briarcliff Entertainment releases "The Apprentice" in theaters on 10/11/24.
