the apprentice
★★★★★
starring: sebastian stan, jeremy strong, maria bakalova, and martin donovan
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REVIEWER: lyall carter
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 Cohn.
Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 11/9 (2018) which explored the cultural and political conditions that saw Trump ascend to the presidency in 2016 was one of the most terrifying films that I have ever seen. Not necessarily because of the outcome of the election but because of the neglect and apathy of the political and cultural elite, on both sides of the aisle, who allowed for these kinds of conditions to develop and fester in the first place. There are similarities within The Apprentice in that it explores the conditions that allowed a young Donald Trump to climb the greasy pole of capitalism to where he is today. Chilling to the bone and hilarious in its gallows humour, The Apprentice is a tour de force in both its performances and the themes explored that will seep into your soul and lay there oozing for days to come. One of the best films of 2024.
A young Donald Trump (Sebastian Stan), eager to make his name as a hungry second son of a wealthy family in 1970s New York, comes under the spell of Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong), the cutthroat attorney who would help create the Donald Trump we know today. Cohn sees in Trump the perfect protégé—someone with raw ambition, a hunger for success, and a willingness to do whatever it takes to win.
The Apprentice, largely speaking, is split up into two parts. The first explores a young, rich but desperate Donald Trump as he tries to not only realise his ambition but also as he seeks to thwart an impending legal case against his father’s company. It’s here that we witness his practice and his character being maliciously moulded into the image of his mentor Roy Chohn. In the second part of the film, we see Trump more as he is today; brash, unrepentant, and making deals.
What The Apprentice masterfully manages to do, amongst a number of other things, is to humanise Trump. Not to some Hollywood notion of perfection, but you get behind the mask, seeing what makes the man tick.
A heck of a lot of that is down to Sebastian Stan, who, post Marvel’s Winter Soldier, is weaving some superb performances but this one could be his Oscar winning role. His take on Trump is crafted with care and a lightness of touch, never stooping to the caricature that we’ve seen hundreds of times while undeniably becoming Trump himself. Stan’s performance is worth the price of a ticket alone.
The underbelly of this film is that it asks this simple question: what would unchecked capitalism truly look like? A cesspit of corruption, with people and organisations subverting the democratic process, where profit over people is the mantra to live and die by. This is the land where Trump dwells, where he lives and moves and has his being. Perhaps that’s why he’s tried to stop this film from seeing the light of day. Perhaps he doesn’t want you to see what really lies behind the mask.
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Chilling to the bone and hilarious in its gallows humour, The Apprentice is a tour de force in both its performances and the themes explored that will seep into your soul and lay there oozing for days to come. One of the best films of 2024.
★★★★★
