The Apprentice (2024) Directed by Ali Abbasi
5A
The Apprentice is an aptly titled unauthorized biography of Donald Trump's early years in New York before he became interested in politics. The time period covered is from his puppy years learning to wheel and deal in the big city to the beginning of his autobiographical
The Art of the Deal in the mid-eighties. The movie is principally about his mentor/student relationship with the remorseless Roy Cohn, the lawyer who was the brains behind Senator Joe McCarthy's Communist witch hunts in the '50s. At first, the young Trump is a little reticent about Cohn's methods, but he quickly begins to see the wisdom of Cohn's advice as it applies to him. Cohn has three ironclad rules to live by: 1) attack, attack, attack; 2) admit nothing, deny everything; and 3) most importantly, never admit defeat. These quickly become Trump's standards, and, really, for better or worse, they have made him the man that he is today.
Most of the movie focuses on their relationship, and I would think that even some Trump supporters would find these extended sections plausible and persuasive. The proof is in the pudding after all. The other claims the movie makes regarding Trump's relationship with his father and brother, his alleged assault on his first wife Ivana, and the sour end of his relationship with Cohn all strike me as too rushed and too sketchy to be convincing. These things might have happened, but it they did, the movie doesn't convince me they happened in the manner shown, if at all.
The Apprentice is highly watchable in a snappy gossip-column kind of way. The acting is excellent. Sebastian Stans brings just the right dollop of humanity to his Trump, enough for him to appear human but not not enough for him to be sympathetic. Maria Bakalova is wholly believable as Ivana. And Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn is almost certainly headed for a well-deserved Academy Award nomination. His Cohn is thoroughly repellent but ruthlessly true to his code. Trump by learning how to add charisma, some New York street smarts and a good comedian's timing to this mix takes Cohn's precepts to the next level. And, obviously, beyond.