I’ve said there should be movies about Donald Trump. There’s a lot about Trump’s life that’s cinematic, and there are unlimited angles to explore. Now, on the eve of what will either be Trump’s restoration or his final electoral defeat, we have the first big one: The Apprentice.
Directed by Iranian filmmaker Ali Abbasi, who made Holy Spider and written by journalist Gabriel Sherman, the film’s set between the late-1970s and late-80s. It depicts Trump’s rise from the scion of a relatively small-time outer-borough real estate family to the Manhattan mogul of the Reagan era, under the mentorship of historic villain Roy Cohn.
There are also unsubtle hints of what would come in Trump’s later political career. The film depicts Trump raping his first wife, Ivana, having surgery on his scalp, and getting out of multiple messes via Cohn blackmailing officials. There’s also the implication that Cohn had a not-purely professional interest in his protege Trump. It’s mostly stuff that’s been reported in some book or some lawsuit, at some point, enough to give the filmmakers plausible cover.
The Apprentice has two strong performances, from Sebastian Stan as Trump and Jeremy Strong as Cohn, as well as a first-rate production design that plausibly recreates 1980s New York City. Ultimately, though, the film has nothing new or substantive to say about Trump, Cohn, their relationship, Trump’s rise, or the circumstances under which this period led to Trump’s political career. Cohn encouraged Trump to take no prisoners, deny everything, and more. But all of that’s been chewed over endlessly in the last 10 years. Furthermore, this film won’t sway a single person’s vote.
Most of Stan’s performance wrapped around his gradually altering his personality to sound more like the arrogant, boastful Trump. However, after A Different Man, this isn’t even Stan’s best role of the month.
A towering work, Tony Kushner’s epic play Angels in America, presented the last years of Roy Cohn, played by a string of great actors over the years, taking advantage of one of the American theater’s meatiest roles. Actor Will Brill also had an outstanding turn as the 1950s version of Cohn in last year’s miniseries Fellow Travelers. If Strong had waited around long enough, there’s a good chance he’d eventually get cast as Cohn in an Angels in America revival. As it stands, Strong is good, playing Cohn as less volatile than actors like Al Pacino have in the past, although the script doesn’t give him enough of a character.
The behind-the-scenes story is a lot more interesting than the movie. Disgraced former NFL owner Daniel Snyder invested in the film while under the impression that it was pro-Trump before balking at it and selling his stake; if Snyder had read a single piece by Gabriel Sherman, he likely would’ve known what to expect.
Trump’s camp made threats to sue the filmmakers, and while none blocked the film's release, it spooked the major studios. The director, who used to make films in Iran, has been through much worse. The Apprentice reminded me a bit of Oliver Stone’s George W. Bush biopic W, which arrived late in the game and didn’t depart far from what was already ancient conventional wisdom by then (like W, The Apprentice makes great hay out of the future president’s dad not approving of him).
I’d love it if someone made a version of Oliver Stone’s Nixon about Trump—three hours long, styled and ambitious, with 30 great actors in the major roles. Hollywood doesn’t make movies like that anymore—Oppenheimer might’ve been the last one—but I hope they return.