The Apprentice is a well-balanced exploration of former President Donald Trump’s youth and rise as a (somehow?) successful business mogul. Starting in his 30s when still under his father Fred Trump, Sr.’s (Martin Donovan) wing, viewers watch the recklessly ambitious youngster (Sebastian Stan) traverse business dealings in the midst of larger social issues. An old-school money man, he’s not concerned with the larger picture in the world, his state, city, or even personal relationships. Even as parts of his life crumble, his eyes remain on the prize: fame, money and power.
The Apprentice works largely because of its relatively unbiased script and solidly filled roles. If you’re like the writer of this article, you don’t like Donald Trump. You either didn’t vote for him in 2016 or did and realized his failures, and are now terrified for the less-than-a-month away election for a second Trump term’s possibility. If you’re not, you’re excited by the prospect of his return. Either or, The Apprentice does not attempt to sway your opinion. It presents the actions, reactions, and events of an early businessman over many calamitous years, from pleading to his father that he has “the instinct” (“Either you’ve got it or you don’t, and I do!”) to being told he should run for office because of said business sense. For example, the beginning of the film mainly covers Trump’s business relationship/friendship with infamous criminal lawyer Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong) his real-life mentor. Cohn lays out his three simple rules for getting out of any legal trouble: deny everything, attack harder, and never admit defeat.
These simple rules enforce whether you’re a winner or a loser, which is all that Cohn demonstrates as mattering to Trump as they enter a series of legal battles in which Trump is always acquitted. Trump then takes the rules to extreme, denying, attacking, and claiming victory in business, personal life, and self-reflection. Under this lens, his reactions to well-known bankruptcies, property disputes, and legal woes become clear: Cohn’s advice imprinted on a man looking for the excuse to make money without worrying about the (racist, sexist, homo/transphobic, classist) harm or malpractice along the way. Even Cohn comes to despise Trump; as Apprentice details the real Cohn’s battle with, and eventual death from, AIDs later in life, Trump reacts by essentially shunning him. The same is done to his brother, Fred Jr. (Charlie Carrick), as he succumbs to addiction, as well as for others in his life. While Apprentice’s direction eventually feels tumultuous and simple—Trump does something bad, someone else pulls him out of trouble, he screws them over or pays little back to them without any demonstration of his actions’ larger consequences—it effectively dots a period of the former president’s life without going out of its way to portray him as evil or crazy. It displays how patterns still apparent in Trump’s persona and campaign came to be.
Sebastian Stan also does a perfectly decent job filling the role. He gets Trump’s puckered lips, NY accent and state of mind down. Unfortunately, he’s a little flat. He’s not unconvincing—again, he’s good—but he’s too even-keeled. For example, when sternly telling a desperate Ivana Trump (Maria Bakalova) that “I no longer find you attractive” until proceeding to rape/assault her, Stan is feeling-void; brows even, zero sweat, relaxed face, etc. It can be argued that’s how the real Trump behaves and behaved then, but it doesn’t feel psycho- or sociopathic; it feels disengaged. Thus, The Apprentice is a fairly prolific jab at understanding the ex-president, and a solid representation of how politics and business go hand-in-hand most of the time. Opinions will ultimately sway how you feel, but Apprentice nonetheless gives as honest an observational retelling as it can.
The Apprentice
2024
dir. Ali Abbasi
120 min.
Opens Friday, 10/11 @ Coolidge Corner Theatre and theaters everywhere
