Reviews

With weeks to go until the U.S. presidential election, Republican nominee Donald Trump is the focus of a new film, The Apprentice.

The film, directed by Ali Abbasi, is set in the ’70s and ’80s and shows how Trump, then a burgeoning property mogul in New York City, became the controversial figure he is today.

The story is told through the lens of Trump’s friendship with lawyer and political hitman Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong). Trump turns to him for help getting a lawsuit dismissed and the unrepentant and corrupt Cohn becomes his mentor.

Initially, it seems like the film is going too easy on Trump and making him too normal and sympathetic, particularly compared to the despicable Cohn. However, over the course of the film, Trump evolves into a Cohn-like person and gradually becomes more and more of a monster.

Strong, who is essentially playing an amped-up version of his Succession character Kendall Roy, steals the earlier scenes because Cohn is so awful to others. You can’t help but laugh in shock at the way he behaves and speaks to people. Next to that, Trump seems like a nice wallflower. This dynamic slowly changes as Trump becomes a bigger and more powerful character on screen.

Stan could have easily taken a comedic approach to his performance and done an exaggerated villainous portrayal of Trump. But he takes it seriously and you buy his work, even though he doesn’t look or sound much like him. This is because he has his tics and behaviours down pat and turns them up a notch every time the story jumps ahead.

The hair, make-up and costume teams also deserve a shout-out for making him look more and more like the Trump we know today.

It’s hard to imagine an audience for this film as Trump supporters won’t watch it (especially as he’s denounced it) and his opposers probably don’t want to see his story.

Regardless of this, The Apprentice is an interesting villain origins story with an impressive and surprising turn from Stan.

In cinemas from Friday 18th October.

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