Released on Oct. 11 and directed by Ali Abbasi, “The Apprentice” follows a younger Donald Trump — played by Sebastian Stan — through his earlier business ventures and his first marriage to Ivana Zelníčková — played by Maria Bakalova. Jeremy Strong also stars as Trump’s lawyer and mentor Roy Cohn.
The film opens with archival footage of Richard Nixon’s “I’m not a crook” speech alongside a montage depicting New York City in the 1970s — mostly consisting of strip clubs and police brutality. It sets an immediate tone of the turmoil that would allow Trump’s rise to power.
Stan as Trump did a phenomenal job, as did his hair and makeup team. He nailed Trump’s physical mannerisms — such as his hand gestures and lip pursing — as well as his voice, with its repetitive, rambling and almost singsong-y quality.
The first half of the film has the superficial trappings of an uplifting, underdog, coming-of-age story. Throughout the film, the cinematography is rich and bright, and the musical score is upbeat and almost inspirational.
There are even some coming-of-age movie tropes: Donald’s father is tyrannical and doesn’t believe in his son's big dreams. Donald, now our naive boy-next-door style protagonist, is pressured into drinking with the “cool kids” — Cohn and his powerful friends — until he vomits.
When Donald first attempts to ask Ivana to dinner, she doesn’t go because she has a boyfriend. Taken in isolation — without knowing who Trump is, what he’s done and what he will do — it’s almost pure; almost childlike. All the while, the characters and aspirations are anything but, creating an unsettling and unstable contrast.
However, Trump is not fighting the good fight, and his mentor, Cohn, is not a good man, nor is he teaching him good things. What brings the two together is Donald seeking legal advice to help him and his father beat a racial discrimination suit regarding the Trumps’ rental policies and behaviors.
Cohn convinces a Department of Justice agent to drop the case after confronting and blackmailing the agent with photos of him being intimate with another man.
The contrast between the dubiousness of the character’s moralities and the almost-innocent story structure creates a movie that feels unstable and dangerous; it’s unsettling in all of the best ways.
The second half of the film is more what I expected of a Trump biopic in terms of tone and structure, but it was much more difficult to watch.
It opens with Reagan speaking on TV as the chaos of New York continues. The use of presidents to mark the passage of time is brilliant; if we use the president as a “memento-mori” clock, then the Trump presidency is the proverbial end or death.
In the second half, Trump is awful to his peers, his family and most of all, his wife. He says that he is no longer attracted to Ivana after the boob job he pressured her into getting, then violently sexually assaults her.
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The most chilling moment of the film is when Trump meets with a staffer for the Reagan campaign, who is trying to secure Trump’s endorsement for Reagan. The staffer asks Trump if he’s ever considered running for office, and shares with Trump Reagan’s new campaign slogan: “Make America Great Again.”
The penultimate scene contrasts Cohn’s funeral with a nauseatingly detailed, extended sequence of Trump undergoing plastic surgery to remove excess fat and excess skin from his scalp to reduce the look of baldness. It paints a visceral, gruesome picture of Trump’s selfishness and vanity, as well as a loss of the humanity we’d seen a glimmer of early on.
The Trump campaign was viscerally opposed to the film’s creation and screening. According to The Guardian, Trump himself called the film a “politically disgusting hatchet job” and sent cease and desist letters to the production team.
The film was partially dramatized; as writer Charles Papadopoulos explained for Screen Rant, many aspects included were exaggerated, while others were false or unverifiable — such as Cohn bribing a DOJ agent with evidence of the agent’s homosexuality, Cohn’s involvement in Ivana and Donald’s prenuptial agreement, and Trump’s amphetamine habit.
Nevertheless, the film still resonated with me after seeing the Trump presidency in a way that made me feel horrified, but simultaneously grounded and understood. Through beautiful cinematography, phenomenal acting, and twists on classic story structure, Abbasi crafted a compelling-yet-controversial biopic that is definitely worth the watch.
Addison Fulton is the culture editor for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at culture@dailylobo.com or on X @dailylobo
