It was a risk for Ali Abassi to make a film about Donald Trump, but you know what? “The Apprentice” works very well as an origin story of what made Trump who he is today. The film implies that sketchy operator Roy Cohn was the biggest influence that shaped the 45th President. Trump and Cohn were an odd couple, helping each other achieve their end goals at the time.
If anything, “The Apprentice” tackles the gradual transformation of Trump and is done in a way that avoids SNL-style parody. It’s actually quite restrained for most of its runtime and the story being told here is fairly interesting. Some of it was actually tackled in Matt Tyrnauer’s excellent 2019 documentary “Where’s My Roy Cohn?” which I highly recommend.
Jeremy Strong plays Cohn and he deserves all the accolades for his strong turn here — he exudes the ruthless nature that Cohn had. Cohn, a lawyer, politician, and underground guy, was all about the “killer instinct,” and he took Trump under his wings in ‘70s NYC. Sebastian Stan plays Trump and he’s, surprisingly, excellent. It’s not a caricature, but rather, a fully lived-in portrayal with all the gestures and mannerisms we’ve gotten to know by now.
Cohn eventually succumbed to AIDS, and his friendship with Trump soured a bit during that time, as student overtook teacher, but there was still some kind of shared camaraderie up to his final days. The heart of this film is their eccentric bromance and the way it kept evolving through the chaos of New York City politics.
Maria Bakalova plays Trump’s first wife Ivana, who played a major role in designing his buildings, including, and especially, Trump Tower. Their marriage eventually soured and not without, in a hilarious scene, a forced-upon prenup being signed. Trump’s brother, Fred Jr, is also shown as being the black sheep of the family, an alcoholic who was never a “killer.”
There’s a ton of authenticity to this film. Abbasi and cinematographer Kasper Tuxon (“The Worst Person in the World”) switch up the look of the film as it goes from the low-rent ‘70s to ‘80s excess — the former is filmed in grainy film, almost like a New Hollywood production, and the latter is as slickly photographed as the decade it portrays.
Politics are set aside in Abassi’s film for a more nuanced approach, which is why certain scenes, where politics do come into play, don’t work as well, including the last few minutes. The way “The Apprentice” ends, might feel a little off from the rest of the film, and I won’t delve into exactly why, but it’s basically Abassi trying to assert to the audience that he’s definitely no pro-Trumper. It’s an unnecessary move for a film that felt, surprisingly, and refreshingly, neutral.
Whether you like it or not, Trump and Cohn shaped today’s world, with the former president using what Cohn taught him to change the political landscape forever with a brashly no-holds barred attitude. Whenever Abassi’s film tackles their friendship, it’s a thoroughly entertaining film. [B/B+]