Donald Trump.
It is a name practically ingrained in today’s popular and political culture. Known by billions, his story is marred by leagues of controversial moments and actions. However, before the Trump of today, there was the Trump of 50 years ago – a younger but still decrepit man – a message the film “The Apprentice” attempts to capture.
Iranian-Danish filmmaker Ali Abbasi directs this film, which focuses on Trump’s early days, portrayed by Sebastian Stan. Here, he is the young, naive son of American real estate developer Fred Trump, portrayed by Martin Donovan, whose shadow he is attempting to escape from. The film starts when Donald Trump meets the sleazy lawyer Roy Cohn, portrayed by Jeremy Strong, while his family attempts to escape a civil rights lawsuit. What starts as a professional relationship between client and lawyer quickly shifts into a dangerous duo.
Strong and Stan shine as cruel mentor and evil-budding mentee, beautifully portraying these two sick and twisted real-life figures. Stan’s portrayal of Trump starts as a wimpy socialite, obsessed with his image and money. While these characteristics do not really change, they intensify as Cohn begins to mold the young Trump into the evil, greedy persona that the public knows him as today.
While Stan’s acting amazes, Strong manages to blow him out of the water as Cohn. While Trump is a well-known personality, Cohn is not as prominent in today’s culture, making his character a challenge to bring to life. Strong masterfully achieved the nearly impossible task of portraying a terrible man who created a man worse than himself. Strong embodies the immoral lawyer, best known for knocking down civil rights lawsuits while harboring a key secret: He himself was a gay man suffering from HIV, a disease he eventually died fighting.
Points in this film feel like a genuine horror movie. Key moments showed Trump’s anger and cruelty, especially when he meets and marries his first wife, Ivana Trump, portrayed by Maria Bakalova. Viewers watch as hebecomes increasingly more evil, at first treating her kindly and showering her with gifts, then torturing and even raping her at one point, a moment that is highly contested by the Trump administration.
This already amazing film is further empowered by a stellar soundtrack from Martin Dirkov. The music perfectly captures the time period of the ‘70s and ‘80s with the xylophone and digital keyboards. During scarier portions of the movie, there are more intense musical tones, allowing for proper beats in the story.
Following the film’s recent release, Trump published a statement on his conservative social media site, Truth Social, calling the film “a disgusting hatchet job” and “FAKE and CLASSLESS.” His attorneys also threatened legal action to the filmmakers, even sending a cease and desist order to Abbasi and his team.
Oftentimes historical dramas like this, which focus on extremely controversial and terrible figures, receive backlash from the same figures they attempt to critique and analyze. Trump’s history has been marred by all the insane things he has achieved and gotten away with, yet people often cannot separate the man from the myth. This movie helps to show the public that they may be one and the same.
