movie review
THE APPRENTICE
What sane person, whose LinkedIn accounts don’t list “film critic” anyway, would go see a movie about Donald Trump right now?
The former president and current candidate dominates the news, and unpleasant impressions of him are omnipresent, whether on late-night television or at any party where alcohol is served.
Why more?
Director Ali Abbasi and screenwriter Gabriel Sherman attempt to answer that question with their controversial film “The Apprentice,” a drama about Trump’s rise to fame as a New York real estate mogul in the late 1970s alongside his ruthless lawyer and mentor Roy Cohn and his wife Ivana.
Since May, the film has been touring the festival circuit and the swing states, hoping to gain traction.
The film premiered at Cannes in the spring and then struggled to find American distribution. Three possible reasons. Last week it screened in Telluride, and Thursday night there was a surprise private screening in Toronto, where I saw it.
I can now say that the film has something to offer everyone – something to be angry about.
The left will be irritated that Trump, played by Sebastian Stan, is not sufficiently demonized.
Abbasi’s entertaining enough film is a generally likeable portrait of a young man trying to make his way in the tough New York business world.
He is unfairly mocked, notably by Mayor Ed Koch (Ian D. Clark), when he takes the risk of building the opulent Trump Tower at a time when no one was betting on Midtown’s disorder or, for that matter, the crime-ridden city. His gamble pays off handsomely.
Abbasi also captures the grimy glamour of New York very well, and the film has the grainy precision of archival footage.
Donald also has complicated relationships with his father Fred (Martin Donovan), who despises him, and his brother Fred Jr. (Charlie Carrick), who died at the age of 42 from causes related to alcoholism. He falls in love with Ivana (Maria Bakalova), a quick-witted woman, and marries her.
Trump’s life changes when he meets Cohn (Jeremy Strong), a powerful and socialite who lives by the adages “attack, attack, attack” and “admit nothing, deny everything.” The title doesn’t refer to a specific reality TV show, but rather to the duo’s teacher-student relationship.
Strong, who, after putting on eye makeup, is a dead ringer for Cohn, is superb. He is Roy three times over: a mix of Roy Cohn, Kendall Roy and Logan Roy who could tear you to pieces in one breath. And, as Cohn is dying of AIDS, the agile Strong plays both the pit bull and the patient.
Most episodes of “The Apprentice” don’t deserve their reputation for bold comedy. They’re enjoyable depictions of closed-door conversations, like those in “The Crown,” and shouldn’t be taken too seriously.
Except for two tasteless minutes.
The right will be furious over two blatantly provocative scenes that have transformed “The Apprentice” into “The Cease and Desist.”
As his marriage begins to deteriorate and Trump begins having an affair, he violently rapes Ivana on the floor of their apartment. This is risky because while Ivana did indeed make this statement one day, she recanted it years later.
Then, in the 1980s, as his fame skyrocketed, Trump was shown undergoing liposuction and having the mid-scalp surgically removed to treat his baldness. There is no merit in including this – only puerile and disgusting provocation.
Stan, who has morphed into Mr. Prosthetics in recent years, is a good Trump. In the first half of the film, when he’s green and vulnerable, he’s believable and easy to like.
Yet as Trump evolved into the familiar personality we know today, members of the press around me laughed at Stan’s round vowels and amusing lip movements.
Another Trump impersonator. Brilliant.
“The Apprentice” has finally found a distributor. Briarcliff Entertainment will release it on 2,000 screens on October 11.
But movies about politicians don’t usually do very well with American audiences, whether they’re about a president’s time in office (the awful “Vice” and George W. Bush) or his early years (the tiny “Southside With You” about Barack and Michelle Obama’s first date).
Of course, no one breaks precedent like Donald Trump.
But even for him, getting the masses to come out for a presidential biopic less than a month before November 5 would be huge.
New York Post
