The Apprentice screened at BFI London Film Festival and is now showing in cinemas nationwide.
As I write this review, it’s baffling that Donald Trump is attempting to find a way back to the White House. Never mind his incompetence as a US President the first time around – laden with lies, laziness and embarrassing stupidity (anyone remember when he suggested fighting Covid by injecting bleach?) – but, as a person, he is so fragile and morally bankrupt that it borders on fascinating. Feature films about his character were inevitable, the first of which was just shown at the London Film Festival – Ali Abbasi’s The Apprentice.
The film chooses to explore not Trump’s politics or his time as a TV personality – the title being a direct callback to the show Trump used to host – but his time in real estate during the 70s and 80s. Prior to becoming President, Trump (Sebastian Stan) was the heir to his father Fred’s (Martin Donovan) real estate empire. However, instead of the bombast he portrays nowadays, he comes across as a timid, clumsy man at the film’s start. He cowers in fear of his father, who frequently laments how disappointing his children are, while desperately wanting to become part of the New York elite. Already, we can see the pitiful desire to be a strongman within Trump.
His life changes when he meets the ruthless Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong), an aggressive, foul-mouthed, deeply conservative lawyer known for his shady conduct, which has earned him three indictments. Fascinated by Cohn’s commanding personality, Trump hires him as the family lawyer, begging to be taken under Cohn’s wing. Cohn agrees, and thus, the men begin a significant but tenuous partnership.
Understanding Trump’s mentality is an exhausting process, but what is abundantly clear is his binary philosophy regarding winners and losers. Most people disregard this ideology once they hit puberty, but it’s the only principle Trump believes in. All that matters is winning, even if you have to lie or cheat, as Trump has spent a lifetime doing. Cohn was counsel to the infamous US Senator Joseph McCarthy and the prosecutor at the Rosenberg trial, where two American civilians were convicted and executed for being soviet spies. He was a brutal man – an adjective Trump frequently uses – who embodied the same philosophy as Trump. His three rules of constant attacking, constant denial, and always claiming victory no matter how it looks are emphasised throughout, with Cohn forcefully repeating them to Trump. The film shows how Trump’s learning of these rules allowed him to take the Trump Organisation to the heights it did, using whatever dubious means were available.
The Apprentice succeeds most in its depiction of Trump’s chilling descent into villainy. The essence of the narrative is Frankensteinian in quality, with Cohn mentoring Trump and building him up into the monster we know today, only to lose control of said monster when it begins to act of its own, overly ambitious, accord. Trump’s character arc would be aspirational in another story – a man working towards an empire – but here it is rightfully shown as scary. This opportunistic man is learning to be the worst version of himself from another power-hungry individual. Yet that suppressed sense of insecurity always remains. Trump, deep down, is a scared little boy, one who wants to be king of the world but knows he isn’t worthy. It would be tragic if his narcissism weren’t so unsettling, an attribute that comes clearer into focus as he further implements Cohn’s teachings, taking legal shortcuts, scamming his associates, and both objectifying and allegedly abusing his wife, Ivana (Maria Bakalova).
It’s a succinct, damning portrayal of greed, of how a proud lack of empathy can poison any system, be it of a person’s mind or of an entire society. One just wishes the film was a bit more stylistic in craft. Using film grain in the cinematography to recreate a 70s look gives the picture the sense of reliving a bad memory, while the handheld approach gives it a faux-documentarian quality that enhances the discomfort. However, it lacks a certain flair, which Trump, unfortunately, does have. Despite the opulent costumes and setpieces, the direction is pretty stagnant, and many opportunities are missed to strengthen its arguments. This is particularly noticeable with the inclusion of speeches by Presidents Nixon and Reagan and the introduction of the ‘Make America Great Again’ slogan in the 80s. Both foreshadow Trump’s presidential calamity, yet the film doesn’t have so much as a pre-credits text to highlight these events. Given that the film is arguing how unchecked narcissism and entitlement can lead to monstrous people, not tying this to Trump’s political etiquette or the violent insurrection conducted in his name following his election loss feels somewhat craven.
There’s an argument to be made that the film has been released too soon, given modern-day politics and Trump’s continuing presence. One can also see more zealous individuals watching this film and seeing Trump’s arc as aspirational rather than disturbing. Nevertheless, The Apprentice is reasonably solid. What it lacks in distinctive craftsmanship, it makes up for with its engaging, eerie origin story, one that is carried by the tour-de-force performances of Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong. Movies like this demonstrate what can be unleashed when one’s worst impulses are nurtured instead of discouraged. They may end up the winner, even if it’s only in their own mind, but everyone else, including themselves, will ultimately lose.
Anyone voting for Donald Trump in the upcoming election is, of course, exercising their democratic right. However, people also have a duty to research the person they are voting for in any democratic process, building a complete picture of their history, their self-created world and the mentors who made them before placing an X in the box. The fact that Trump has so vehemently rejected and criticised The Apprentice is a sign that he would rather you didn’t know about the skeletons in his closet and the history, connections and actions at the heart of his internal and external beliefs.
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