Head of Reviews Robert Flynn discusses The Apprentice (2024), and asks if more Trump is really what we need right now
One of the most prominent talking points surrounding the recent US presidential election is how aware voters are of what each candidate stands for. Democratic candidate Kamala Harris launched a strong and energetic campaign over the summer after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race. Despite her current position as Vice President, Harris struggled to reach certain voting audiences due to her narrow window of a campaign. Whereas, her Republican opponent Donald Trump has been present in American culture for the last eight years due to his inescapable presence and will remain there for the next four years, at the very least.
I found myself asking the same question repeatedly: Is there anything more that we could learn about Donald Trump?
The world has come to know him as a lying, dangerous businessman who unjustifiably refuses defeat and changes his values, not even from election to election but on a daily basis. Our opinions and perceptions of Trump, for better or worse, are comfortably set in stone at this point. As a result, while watching Ali Abbasi’s portrait of the origin story of Donald Trump, I found myself asking the same question repeatedly: Is there anything more that we could learn about Donald Trump?
When we meet Trump (Sebastian Stan) in The Apprentice, he is not the corrupt former President and President-Elect that we know him as today. Even New York feels unrecognisable. We see a young Trump strolling the squalid city streets, captivated by ideas of success and grandeur; incessantly talking about the Vanderbilts and former Presidents. While claiming his importance in a high-end restaurant, he catches the eye of corrupt attorney Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong). Cohn takes a shine to the ambitious Trump and a tumultuous relationship and apprenticeship unfolds, and subsequently unravels.
Cohn digs his claws into a naive and impressionable Donald Trump early on in his career; in various scenes Trump sits in awe of Cohn as he boasts of his principles of denying all, accepting nothing, refusing defeat at every corner and, above all else, ‘protecting’ America. We witness Trump float through coke fuelled sex parties and be granted numerous, unearned tax breaks as he gradually becomes a towering presence in America. Ultimately, he drifts towards the inevitable and becomes the Trump that we know today.
The Apprentice offers a very narrow and limited view of one figure. In the end, Abbasi’s replication of this cinematic language feels vapid.
Director Ali Abbasi fails to subvert or lead the film in any interesting or thoughtful avenues, never offering any new insight into Trump as a nefarious businessman. Abbasi paints him as an abusive misogynist who would shake any hand to further his control over the city of New York. Beyond assigning these well established attributes to Trump, the film offers nothing new. Though Abbasi is rightfully angry, there is sadly nothing revelatory in his portrait of the ascent of Donald Trump.
To portray the rise of Trump, Abbassi adopted a cinema verite style of filming, clearly paralleling the visual language of Succession. The borrowing of this handheld, intimate style feels more derivative rather than inspired. While Succession uses these formal elements to build character and offer humanity to culturally inaccessible business elites, The Apprentice offers a very narrow and limited view of one figure. In the end, Abbasi’s replication of this cinematic language feels vapid.
Luckily, the runtime of this often grating origin story is shouldered by some confident and impressive performances by Sebastian Stan, Maria Bakalova, and Jeremy Strong. Stan offers an intriguingly human angle on Trump, yet Jeremy Strong’s portrayal of Roy Cohn stands out the most and demands awards recognition.
While it has become increasingly easy to be frustrated with the outcome of the US election and the subsequent success of Donald Trump, Ali Abbas’s The Apprentice does not offer much to help that situation.
Jeremy Strong is constantly evolving and equally impressing us all with each role. Strong builds his impressive portrayal of Roy Cohn through posture and recognisable twitches. Cohn is a man who is consistently upholding a carefully crafted, aggressive persona which conceals his sexuality. Strong communicates this through an emotionless face and rigid presence which is continuously strained and chipped away at. As Cohn deteriorates, Strong unfurls and lets the facade wither in the most devastating way.
While it has become increasingly easy to be frustrated with the outcome of the US election and the subsequent success of Donald Trump, Ali Abbas’s The Apprentice does not offer much to help that situation. Similarly to Border (2018) and Holy Spider (2022), director Abbasi points out important and prevalent societal issues but fails to provide anything of substance to the respective themes. After watching The Apprentice it has become clear that the only way to truly dismantle and disarm Donald Trump is to refuse to grant him the one thing he craves - attention.