By Alex Gilston - October 17, 2024
The US presidential election is now just around the corner. Kamala Harris takes on former President Donald Trump for the keys to the White House. Tensions are palpable, and the grim foresight, should Trump be re-elected, has already begun. So of course, what better time to release a film that recounts his meteoric rise to failed businessman in the 1980s. Ali Abbasi and Gabriel Sherman paint a competent picture of Trump’s rise through the ranks, but it’ll leave you asking one simple question of its existence (especially given the current circumstances): Why?
Donald J. Trump (Sebastian Stan) has big ideas. He wants to build big things, and become a big person, who does big things. Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong) sees something in him and offers to be his personal lawyer, to help get the government off the back of the Trump family, who have been accused of segregation in their housing empire. Roy slowly turns into Trump’s mentor seeing him through the creation of all of his businesses, including the erection of Trump tower.
Ali Abbasi’s The Apprentice uses all the hallmarks of Mary Shelley’s seminal novel Frankenstein and applies it to Trump and Cohn’s relationship. Through Cohn’s ruthlessness he unintentionally creates a monster in Trump. It’s eye opening to see Cohn’s gradual realisation throughout the film's 120 minute run time. The Apprentice would be much stronger if Cohn’s eventual horror-laced reaction was more embedded into Trump’s monstrous nature works to the film's detriment.
The monster metaphor is very well stitched together though. We, maybe unnecessarily in some cases, see him commit heinous acts against his friends and family, pushing them all away in pursuit of power. It even all culminates in a ghastly surgical scene, akin to the construction of Darth Vader in Revenge of the Sith, which seals his fate as the Trump we now know.
The film also traverses his relationship with his late wife Ivana Trump (Maria Bakalova). As is probably the case with Trump in real life, Ivana feels like an afterthought in The Apprentice. Purposefully side-lined as his trophy wife, and many of her scenes resort to her objectification. Bakalova works well with the material she’s given, but thanks to the film’s subject matter her character is nothing more than a punching bag for Trump.
The performances are the strongest part of The Apprentice. Sebastian Stan is almost unrecognisable as himself and embodies Trump to an uncanny level. From certain angles you’d be forgiven for mistaking him for the real article. And there’s something about his top lip that will send shivers down your spine because of how accurate an impression it is. It’s Jeremy Strong who comes out on top though. In some respects The Apprentice is more focused on the man behind the man rather than the man himself, and this gives Strong an unending sandbox to play in.
It doesn’t matter how long you could sit here and praise the film for its technical elements, and even talk about the respectable Frankenstein metaphor in the narrative, because at the end of the day there’s still no reason for this film to exist. At least right at this moment. When all is said and done we all know who Donald Trump is. A serial liar, and a convicted felon, and the film does nothing of note beyond those facts. So ultimately The Apprentice is a film for no one which does nothing but embolden Trump, and give him something extra to complain about while moderate undecided voters will potentially sympathise with him. Which at this integral point in the election cycle is incredibly dangerous.
THE APPRENTICE RELEASES IN CINEMAS OCTOBER 18
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