Seems appropriate to review a movie about Donald Trump as the US go to vote. The Apprentice is a dramatization of Trump’s rise to fame. It’s based on real events, but has been Hollywoodised.
The Apprentice stars Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Strong, Martin Donovan, Maria Bakalova, Catherine McNally, Charlie Carrick and Ben Sullivan. Ali Abbasi directs with Gabriel Sherman writing, both relative newcomers.
The Story
This isn’t a biopic of Trump (Stan), but how he made he first few business deals and how he was an apprentice to a lawyer, Roy Cohn (Strong). The official plotline is:
The story of how a young Donald Trump started his real-estate business in 1970s and ’80s New York with the helping hand of infamous lawyer Roy M. Cohn.
I know very little about Trump, I know he is a business man and he was on the US version of The Apprentice TV show, but that’s about it. I’ll be honest, I don’t know why I watched the movie. It was something new and looked mildly interesting.
There isn’t much point in me breaking down the story, it follows Trump, from a simple landlord to a multi-millionaire owning several buildings, but also owing lots of people lots of money.
Cohn is a ruthless lawyer who will stop at nothing to get what he wants. This includes blackmail and recording secret conversations. He teaches Trump the three rules to success:
- Be kind and show love to everyone!
- Always be generous with your wealth.
- Show love, all the time.
Yeah, right, can you imagine? The three rules are actually:
- Attack, attack, attack!
- Admit nothing, deny everything!
- No matter what happens, you claim victory and never admit defeat.
At first, he has trouble coming to terms with it, but eventually becomes the ‘monster’ Cohn was trying to create. So much so, that he eventually turns on his creator.
The Cast
Stan is outstanding! He really is amazing in this role. I only really know him as Bucky from Captain America, so seeing him in a serious role like this, is very interesting. From the little I know of Trump, it’s an excellent portrayal.
Strong on the other hand is odd, the reason being Succession. Strong is probably best know as Kendall Roy from Succession, a role he was very good at. The main issue I found is that he plays the same role in The Apprentice.
OK, it’s not exactly the same, but there are times when he is talking, and I can only see Kendall. It was a very odd choice for casting but, by all accounts, a good choice. A longtime associate of Trump and Cohn said his performance was uncanny.
Good guy or bad guy?
I don’t do politics, but it can’t be helped while watching The Apprentice. Trump has been president, and he might well be again very soon. The movie doesn’t go that far into his career, but it does give an impression of what kind of man he is.
Throughout The Apprentice, there are several people that he owes money too. There are people that he manipulates into doing his will. At one point, he gets his own father to sign something away to pay off his debts. I think that’s what happens, I’m not familiar with how things like that work in the US.
The three rules that Cohn teaches him are how he lives his life. Personally, I see him as someone who know believes in his own ‘character’. If you say something enough, it becomes the truth. If you never admit defeat, then you will never lose.
You have to live with some sense of reality. There are times in life when you do lose and it’s OK to do that, you can learn lessons. However, if you convince yourself that you are always in the right, you learn nothing, and you become deranged?
Overall
The Apprentice is going to divide people, especially those who are more politically inclined. Some will see Trump as a monster, others as a self-made man. Is he fit to be president again? Well, you guys can discuss that in the comments.
The movie is very interesting and very well made. It’s shot in 4:3 ratio and feels like a documentary at times. The performances are excellent and it tells an interesting story. How real the story is, is again, up to you.
I give The Apprentice a solid 3 out of 5 stars. It’s now streaming online.
