The Apprentice

Directed by Ali Abbasi (2024)

Review by Isabelle Dupuy

As part of the ‘Enough of Trump’ cohort – those who feel that Donald Trump has polluted our mental iCloud and do not wish to see or hear more about that man – I went to see The Apprentice reluctantly.

Ali Abbasi, an Iranian-Danish film maker whose credits include a horror film, Shelley, and the zombie TV series The Last of Us, was thus prepared to give us the origin story of Donald Trump. The Apprentice begins in 1970s New York, when a privileged, frustrated, tall and blond young man named Donnie Trump is gaping at the rich and famous in a private Manhattan members club. One of these celebrities meets his gaze. It’s Roy Cohn, the infamous lawyer who spearheaded Senator Joe McCarthy’s witch hunts in the 1950s and was the prosecutor at the trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.

Sebastian Stan as the young Trump and Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn deserve Oscar nominations for their performances. Stan’s Donald is like a lopsided empty vessel that Strong’s Cohn is too keen to fill. He doesn’t only tell Donald how to ‘win’, he shows him. A federal lawsuit rightly accusing Donald’s father’s business of racial discrimination is dismissed after Cohn blackmails the prosecutor.

Why is Cohn so dedicated to the young Trump? He goes as far as to pay a tailor to make Donald a power suit. Gabriel Sherman’s script lets the action suggest an answer. Cohn is a closeted homosexual but it would be wrong to say he was in love with Donald. He sees Trump as a good investment. A powerful Trump would be a useful friend in Cohn’s old age when his own influence wanes. Donald, however, doesn’t understand loyalty or gratitude. He takes everything Cohn offers with the ease and thoughtlessness of the entitled. Ali Abbasi calls his film a reflection on America. Indeed, it would be hard to imagine the reverse situation back in the 70s: a Germanic-looking heterosexual man putting his time and money into the making of a dark, short, Jewish, gay man.

Roy Cohn realises too late what a poor judge of character he is. In his hour of need, he is confronted by the monster he’s helped to create. And ‘monster’ is indeed the correct word for what the troubled young man has become. One of the movie’s most powerful scenes shows the destruction of Ivana, Donald’ first wife. She takes time to step out of a limousine onto a red carpet because she must summon the energy to replace the fear and despair on her face with a demeanour appropriate for the press and her husband.

The Apprentice ends with Donald sitting triumphant in his bling office in Trump Tower, explaining to his newly hired ghostwriter about the mythology he is to create in his ‘memoir’ The Art of the Deal while Roy Cohn is dying alone with AIDS.

I left the cinema feeling forlorn and I wondered why this film was released in October 2024, a mere three weeks before the US elections. Donald Trump’s lawyers have threatened to sue the film makers and The Apprentice had a disappointing opening weekend in spite of good reviews. To answer this question, WritersMosaic organised a Zoom call with a dozen or so American voters, living in the UK, after they had seen the film. The participants, all Democrats, started by saying they were a small group that agreed to go to see the film. Many other American voters declined. Either they had heard that the film was too soft on Donald Trump or they couldn’t face watching even an actor play the former president. We all agreed that it was a worthwhile film with terrific performances and a gripping story. Yet all the participants in our Zoom admitted to feelings of anger and anxiety as they left the cinema. Some worried that viewers could conclude that amorality was a necessary component for success.

The Apprentice, although set in the 70s and 80s, is not a historical film. Because of the current stakes, the film feels more like an omen, a potent warning. It also serves as an accusation. What kind of society allows a young man like Trump to grow unchecked into the potential president of the United States? Watching the mendacity, narcissism and cruelty of Sebastian Stan’s Trump, as he stands on the verge of becoming a celebrity, brings Hannah Arendt’s words about ‘the banality of evil’ to mind. The American voters all agreed, this film takes an unusual toll.

Perhaps this is why the makers of The Apprentice agreed to release the film now in spite of these challenges. If Trump wins on Tuesday, they may never have the chance to show it again.