PREMISE
This is the story of how a young Donald Trump started his real-estate business in New York in the 1970s and ’80s with the help of infamous lawyer Roy Cohn.
THE GOOD STUFF
JEREMY STRONG – Perhaps one can be a big enough fan of the show SUCCESSION to see that the man who played Kendall Roy is playing yet another big shot New York type, ultra-rich d-bag of the highest order and conclude that whatever he’s portraying in this movie is going to be a lot similar to what Kendall Roy was on that show. I am happy to inform you that that is wildly incorrect.
Jeremy Strong not only portrays one of the most evil characters graced upon any screen in 2024…, but in my humble opinion, he should be a shoo-in for Best Supporting Actor nominations across the board. He dominates the first act of this movie with aplomb, BLITZKRIEGING through scene after scene. Roy Cohen was a very evil man, and as weird as it is to say, I think if he had seen this performance in this movie, he would have liked how well Strong does here.
SEBASTIAN STAN – For the past 10 years or so, the average American has been inundated with so much Donald Trump imagery that, at this point, it may seem like anybody trying to play an honest portrayal of this actual real-life human being would be doing so in a comedic fashion because that’s all we’ve seen so far. No, this movie isn’t out here trying to depict the softer side of Donald Trump or anything. He’s always a monster. However, the goal of this movie is to show you what a monster looks like in each volume from level 1 to level 10. Each volume looks very different from what comes before. This film ends in 1986. He was level 10 at that point. He’s been at level 10 ever since.
In portraying those volumes, Stan gets everything right. The mannerisms, the facial expressions, the speech patterns, everything that we have burned in our minds of this guy, Sebastian Stan is putting on screen. For that, he also deserves considerable award consideration.
PRESENTATION – Simply put, this film’s presentation is that of an old 1990s VHS tape seen on a tube TV. It is a somewhat bold choice to present this film like this, given that it could have been very distracting overall. Gimmicks of film presentation (3D, HFR, for example), more often than not, can easily jar someone’s suspension of disbelief. But here, it works in spades. There are multiple scenes of high-end old-school freak-offs (if you happen to know what that term means in 2024), and this is a spot-on way to present 1980s decadence on screen. This is also an exciting way to frame New York City. I highly doubt they changed any aspect of New York City, but filming it this way makes it look like it used to be.
THE BAD STUFF
RETURN OF THE KING SYNDROME – THE APPRENTICE suffers from what I call the RETURN OF THE KING syndrome. One justifiable criticism of the 2003 masterpiece THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING, is that the movie doesn’t know when to end. A scene will happen that effectively bookends the story we’ve seen, only for another scene to begin right after that. That scene will also bookend the movie, followed by another one and so on and so forth until finally, the credits begin to roll. This happens here. There are three or four times where you could have just rolled the credits after a scene was over. And I didn’t even keep count. There could be more than that.
THE UGLY STUFF
DEPLORABILITY – The main problem with this movie is that you spend time with many characters that are LEVEL F****** 10 DEPORABLE. Even if you don’t know anything about them in real life and somehow went into this movie absolutely blind about who these characters could be, there’s no way you can find anything about them to be likeable or sympathetic. To some, that would make the 2 hour running time kind of an endurance test even though the pacing is really well done. Every single character in this film enables Trump to the absolute maximum even when it doesn’t make sense just because he has an ever growing status.
This is a movie that Chronicles all of Trump’s major victories against numerous politicians, rivals, and even family members from time to time. Somebody would present an obstacle only for Trump to bull**** his way out of it, as he’s always done. This cycle repeats for the vast majority of the second act and especially the third act.
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There are plenty of high-end Wall Street day traders / real estate investors, such as Gordon Gekko wannabes, who can barely maintain their lifestyle in the same way that Donald Trump is in the first act of this film. This is a cautionary tale about what happens when those guys get uninhibited access to everything they can dream about and the people who champion every corrupt and disgusting decision until it starts to affect them.
Many years from now, I feel that some filmmakers are going to compile a lot of research, do a lot of interviews, and do their best to make the most comprehensive biography about Donald Trump they can. God bless those people. Respectfully, to them whoever they are…. They will be wasting their time. This here is the only biopic about this man that should ever matter. No, this is not a biopic chronicling his childhood or, certain business ventures, or even his presidency. This biopic is about a man who, in the 1980s, was not in danger of becoming corrupt or losing his soul, but a man begging for his soul to be bought by somebody.
That’s the story of Donald Trump that matters.
(ALSO, CHECK OUT TRUMP’S OWN SCATHING REVIEW OF THIS FILM. PURE COMEDY.)
THE APPRENTICE is in theaters now.
