by Isaac Greig | Image from Men’s Journal
I was hesitant about Ali Abbasi’s ‘The Apprentice’. I worried that it would attempt to portray Donald Trump (Sebastian Stan) in a sympathetic light, as a naive youth corrupted by the possessive Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong). But after watching the first few minutes of Abassi’s film, my concerns were dispelled.
Abbasi does not portray Trump as an innocent swayed to the dark side by the evil, money-hungry forces that surround him, but as a fool, who blunders his way into success, power, and importance, things that he seems to think outweigh his stupidity.
Abassi uses his background in horror films to fill his film with a sense of dread, reminding his audience that the volatile man they are watching on screen will later become the President of the most powerful country in the world. Otherwise, he keeps his direction subtle, allowing the performances of his cast to propel the film forward, and the performances are excellent.
Stan’s performance as Trump is a career best, masterfully portraying his tics, physicality, and cadence, using his portrayal to highlight how the arrogance and ambition that we have come to know so well existed even when Trump was a young man. Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn is a sure Best Supporting Actor nomination, with his predatory mannerisms and awkward, overconfident sass playing well with Trump’s vanity and ambition. The strength of the two lead’s performances serves to highlight the parallels between the relationship of Trump and Cohn and that of Frankenstein and his monster. Cohn helps create the Trump we know today, but the madman loses control of his creation, who surpasses him, leaving him to reckon with the monster that he has unleashed upon the world. The performances of Maria Bakalova as Ivana Trump and Martin Donovan as Fred Trump are similarly good, their more grounded characters contrasting well with the larger than life nature of Trump and Cohn.
The cinematography takes an interesting, documentary-inspired approach, with a greater emphasis on shaky, hand-held, “guerilla-type” shots, making the audience feel as though they are a part of the scene, doubling as a subtle condemnation of us for allowing Trump to rise to power, despite the red flags that Abassi highlights have existed for decades.
Overall, ‘The Apprentice’ is an incredible exploration of Trump’s rise to power in the business world, and serves as a cautionary tale about the care we must take in selecting who we put our trust in.