The Apprentice
A New York property developer makes a pact with the Devil in Ali Abbasi’s low-key biopic of a future media star.
Stairway to hell: Sebastian Stan and Maria Bakalova
Image courtesy of StudioCanal.
There are few figures on the planet as colourful and mesmerising as Donald J. Trump. Or, for that matter, as well documented on social media, in print and on television. And just as the giants of the Oval Office have made for entertaining fodder on screen, so there will be innumerable movies chronicling the Orange Man in the White House. Ali Abbasi’s surprisingly low-key, 1970s-centric biopic only touches on the tycoon through the ranks of the toadies and dissenters, and in particular his relationship with the ruthless attorney Roy Cohn, whose modus operandi Trump followed to the letter. The latter, superbly played by Jeremy Strong, had three rules: 1) Attack, attack, attack; 2) Deny everything; and 3) Never admit defeat. Cohn also admits, “they say I am Lucifer incarnate – but at least I’m honest.” Roy Cohn deserves his own biopic, but this is probably as close as any movie will get. He also declares that he never tolerates bullies.
The bully in the room – in Trump Village, on top of Trump Tower and at Mar-a-Lago – is Donald J., and Sebastian Stan nails him. First he is the wide-eyed onlooker, soaking up all the corruption around him. Then he is the power-hungry narcissist forever checking his hairline in any passing reflection, and seducing and cajoling those who will accommodate his rise to power. This is the second superlative performance Sebastian Stan has delivered this month, following his extraordinary turn as a man with the debilitating condition of neurofibromatosis in A Different Man, a characterisation as disparate to the future president as you can get.
Ali Abbasi’s biopic begins with a clip of Richard Nixon declaring, “I’m not a crook – I’ve earned everything I’ve got,” which is as ironic a statement as one might find on YouTube. Some of the best movies about the American condition have been made by foreign filmmakers, and one had hoped that Abbasi, who was born in Tehran, might have brought something more surprising to the table. He notes that his film is “a movie about a human being”, and yet Trump’s humanity is sorely missing – even the greatest men have their weaknesses, their vulnerability, like you wouldn’t believe. Here, Trump is observed primarily as an observer, then as a tyrant, liar and rapist, but the man behind the adjectives is missing, which disallows any opportunity to understand the character behind the labels. Yes, he is vain, yes he is cruel, yes he fought to gain the admiration of his father, but we are denied the details that would have rounded him out and made him at least superficially empathetic or remotely admirable.
Abbasi seems more invested in creating a facsimile of the cinema of the time, with the grainy look of a squalid Manhattan, the attendant zooms and hand-held camera and square aspect ratio, imitating Scorsese and his acolytes of the period. Of course, the book of Trump begs for the satirical touch - à la Vice – but no doubt there will be plenty of that to come. For now, though, we can but savour the one-two-punch provided by Stan and Strong.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Strong, Martin Donovan, Maria Bakalova, Catherine McNally, Charlie Carrick, Ben Sullivan, Mark Rendall, Bruce Beaton, Ron Lea.
Dir Ali Abbasi, Pro Daniel Bekerman, Amy Baer, Jacob Jarek, Tony Grier, Julianne Forde, Ruth Treacy and Louis Tisné, Screenplay Gabriel Sherman, Ph Kasper Tuxen, Pro Des Aleks Marinkovich, Ed Olivier Bugge Coutté and Olivia Neergaard-Holm, Music Martin Dirkov, Costumes Laura Montgomery, Dialect coach Elizabeth Himelstein.
Scythia Films/Profile Pictures/Tailored Films/Rich Spirit/AQuest Films/Head Gear Films/Metrol Technology/AC Films Inc./Wild7 Films-StudioCanal.
122 mins. USA/Ireland/Canada/Denmark. 2024. US Rel: 11 October 2024. UK Rel: 18 October 2024. Cert. 15.
