Film Review: THE APPRENTICE: A Tame Trump Biopic [London 2024]

The Apprentice Review

The Apprentice (2024) Film Review from the 68th Annual London Film Festival, a movie directed by Ali Abbasi, written by Gabriel Sherman and starring Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Strong, Maria Baklava, Martin Donovan, Ben Sullivan, Charlie Carrick, Mark Randall and Joe Pingue.

The Apprentice is a rather conventional telling of Donald Trump’s ascension to fame and power, played well by Sebastian Stan, and supported by a magnetic performance from Jeremy Strong as Trump’s lawyer Roy Cohn. Taking on his former years as a failing real estate businessman, we see Trump taken under the wing of a debauched and calculating Cohn, rising from the ranks and becoming the horrible buffoon of a man we all know him as today. There is little to say about it frankly, straightforward and unremarkable as a whole but not entirely repugnant, a quality that remains chiefly for our characters who are no doubt fascinating to watch in their depravity and corruption as they progress through this tame biopic.

The film carefully chooses to begin with Donald as a failed nepo baby, green and lacking, bumbling and idiotic. It sort of exposes his ridiculousness in a demythologising of sorts, without giving it too much credit. It is suitable to see such a presentation, the film playing many laughs at Trump’s behest, his behaviour and actions almost comical; he truly is an idiot. At yet, it is never parodic; it retains some sense of seriousness, in part due to Stan’s low-key performance, which never truly verges into hyperbolic or sensationalist. It benefits the film greatly in what at first I thought to be an unremarkable performance beside the screen chewing Strong. He hits the right notes without becoming mocking or familiar, fresh for contemporary presentations of Trump.

Of course, Strong sits at the opposite end doing what he does best, imbuing allure and passion into his performance as the horrible Roy Cohn. He is a figure that Trump looks up to and someone who brings Trump into this fold of corruption and immorality. Seeing their places casually shift as the film progresses is satisfying, as Trump becomes a worse and more unhinged version of Cohn. It greatly emphasises Trump as imbecilic, thoughtless and reckless where Cohn was at least cunning. Strong even manages to instill a sense of compassion and pity in the end toward the abhorrent Cohn, a potentially cofounding choice nonetheless achieved successfully through Strong. In a way it further exposes the apathetic nature of Trump, now foiled against Cohn, where once alike in mind and spirit.

The rest of the film gives precedence to Trump’s relationship with Ivana (Maria Bakalova), in what could have been an illuminating role in the film. Unfortunately, it isn’t as revealing or charged as one would hope, as well as the presence of a rape scene that, for better or worse, is very much in this film. Her whole presence seeks to further display Trump’s transition from a fool to a dangerous fool, highlighting that well but rendering Ivana as a means to an end rather than a complex and developed character in her own right. Bakalova is still amusing to watch, however.

The film does move along well for the most part, straightforward in its unfolding and cutting in its best moments. It doesn’t display any strong sense of style or cinematic flair, apart from its vague analogue aesthetic that at least adds an integrity to its images. It is a modern-day Godfather of sorts but without the formal or narrative complexity, still successful though in showing its protagonist fall further and further into villainy. And while Stan’s effectively subdued performance lacks extravagance, the film dresses its sets with a golden exuberance to exaggerate and condemn Trump’s capitalist greed.

All in all, Ali Abbasi has crafted a fairly by the book condemnation of Trump in The Apprentice. It is satisfying to see our protagonist slip further and further into the vile man that he is, the shifting of dynamic from apprentice to master as Strong’s Cohn is displaced. It isn’t particularly revelatory or provoking, but it is performed well by its central duo, who each bring different qualities to their performances that enhance both equally. Regrettably though, there is a better, more examined and more evocative film to be made from this.

Rating: 6/10

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