The Apprentice (2024)

The Apprentice (2024). 2h 2m | R

“The title u0026quot;The Apprenticeu0026quot; refers both to Donald Trumpu0026#39;s TV show and to Trumpu0026#39;s relationship with his mentor, Roy Cohn. The film is neither a takedown piece nor a glowing testimonial. Itu0026#39;s much more nuanced and complicated than that.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe first half of the film takes place in 1973. Donald Trump is collecting rent from deadbeat tenants. He and his father are being sued by the Justice Department for housing discrimination. Their lawyers are urging them to settle the suit and move on. But then, a twenty-seven-year-old Trump meets Roy Cohn. A shady character on the fringe of rightwing politics (he made his name as lead counsel for Joseph McCarthyu0026#39;s communist witch hunt), Cohn recommends that the Trumps seize the initiative and countersue the federal government. With Cohn in charge, the case goes away with no admission of wrongdoing. Cohn also guides Trump through the machinations of NYC politics, helping him take over a boarded-up Commodore Hotel, secure tax abatements from city government and ultimately transform the property into the Hyatt Hotel at Grand Central Station. Along the way, Cohn teaches an impressionable Trump his three rules: 1) attack, attack, attack, 2) deny everything, admit nothing, 3) no matter what actually happens, always claim victory.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe last half of the film is set in the early 1980s. Trump opens his namesake Tower. He becomes convinced that Atlantic Cityu0026#39;s casinos will be his path to untold riches. And he hires a writer to pen u0026quot;The Art of the Deal.u0026quot; By this point, he has fully mastered the art of self-promotion.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAt its core, u0026quot;The Apprenticeu0026quot; is an origin story. Iranian-Danish Director Ali Abbasi (u0026quot;Holy Spider,u0026quot; u0026quot;Borderu0026quot;) and u0026quot;Vanity Fairu0026quot; writer Gabriel Sherman argue persuasively that Trump was molded, almost created, by Roy Cohn. But Cohnu0026#39;s influence eventually wanes. Even as Trumpu0026#39;s star ascends in the 80u0026#39;s, Cohn is disgraced (heu0026#39;s disbarred for stealing from clients) and marginalized. He eventually dies of AIDS (although he claimed to his dying breath that he was suffering from liver cancer). By the time u0026quot;The Art of the Dealu0026quot; is published, Trump has decided that Cohnu0026#39;s three rules and his own fame were based on Trumpu0026#39;s ideas all along.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eDirector Abbasi also points out the weird confluence of factors that have helped Trump flourish: a ruthless, winner-take-all version of capitalism that deifies those who succeed; a legal system easily manipulated by the rich to crush opponents or to postpone their own day of reckoning (after screening at Cannes, this film received a u0026quot;cease and desistu0026quot; order from Trumpu0026#39;s attorneys); a US political system that has no idea how to constrain an individual who operates according to Cohnu0026#39;s three rules.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe acting here is superb. As Roy Cohn, Jeremy Strong (Kendall on TVu0026#39;s u0026quot;Successionu0026quot;) is simply mesmerizing. He compellingly embodies the internal contradictions of Cohn, a lawyer who shows complete disdain for the legal system, a Jewish man who embraces antisemitism, a closeted gay man who publicly demeans homosexuality at every opportunity. Sebastian Stan (Marvel series) as Trump and Oscar-nominated Maria Bakalova (u0026quot;Boratu0026quot; sequel) also are worthy of note.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eu0026quot;The Apprenticeu0026quot; is certain to annoy those who love Trump as well as those who love to hate him. Itu0026#39;s an origin story that offers a scathing assessment of American culture and American politics. It demonstrates persuasively that one of Americau0026#39;s most unique and distinctive personalities – and the rules that animate him – were actually crafted, molded and created by somebody else.”