‘If you’re indicted, you’re invited,’ is one of many of Roy Cohn’s immoral mantras that he pontificates in front of a young and impressionable Donald Trump. Cohn is the cold, deadpan high-powered lawyer, played by Jeremy Strong. Meanwhile a young Trump is ironically the apprentice, as Cohn educates him in the first principles of cut-throat commerce, politics, and even romance, in which they always come out as ‘winners.’ It is this friendship that serves as the basis for Ali Abassi’s rich and exciting Donald Trump origin story that debuted at Cannes just last night.
Supported by Screen Ireland / Fís Eireann, Iranian director Ali Abassi and director of Holy Spider showcased his take on Donald Trump, via Sebastian Stan as a young Trump setting up his real estate business in 1970s New York, having made a Faustian deal with infamous lawyer Roy Cohn. Filming only completed at the end of January so this implies a sprint through post production to premiere on the Croisette, and it’s no wonder – it has caused a stir at the most famous film festival in the world. The Apprentice is a long overdue profile of the origins of the divisive American President who can be objectively objectified in film form, now that the dust has settled since his term in office.
To say the film takes a bipartisan approach would be incorrect, but it is certainly not overly derogatory. However, it’s likely that Trump himself will not be too happy with a few scenes which depict him as a hothead, and in one case, a rapist of his wife.
He is humanised here however, and is even endearing and naive in the beginning as you can see how a young ingenue like him can get sucked in by people like Cohn who get what they want by hook or by crook. In humanising him of course, the more familiar and shall we say less attractive aspects of his character are shown by Abbassi through Trump’s value-less existence, and relative indifference in a way that makes the errors of his character speak for themselves. We see the gradual descent of a man driven by greed and fame, and how the slippery slope started out as a bit of ambitious fun, imitating rich and powerful people, and using way too many superlatives.
Sebastian Stan goes through a transformation during the course of this movie, but very subtly and gradually as he literally takes on the Trump alter ego. There’s an interesting scene where he gets liposuction and removes his bald patch, and on the operating chair it’s like a Frankenstein moment where he transforms into the silhouette and caricature we could all pick out of a lineup. But we’ve already been through the origin story by this point, so we can see how he came to be. And that’s the beauty of this film.
The 70s colour grading makes for stunning viewing and you are quite literally transported back to the decaying New York of last century. Not yet at mainstream levels, this film is set to put Abassi on the map with general audiences. Truly a triumph from the talented and hilarious director Ali Abbassi. Abassi is one to watch and everyone will know his name when this is distributed worldwide. It is an excellent piece of output and support of rising talent supported by Screen Ireland.
The Apprentice is produced by Daniel Bekerman for Scythia Films (Canada), Jacob Jarek for Profile Pictures, Ruth Treacy and Julianne Forde for Tailored Films, and Ali Abbasi and Louis Tisné for Film Institute. Metropolitan FilmExport is handling distribution, while Rocket Science is attached for international sales.
FILM FOR THOUGHT 