'The Apprentice' Witness the Birth of Roy Cohn's Frankenstein Monster
Let's talk about the elephant in the room. I'm not a fan of Donald Trump. But that doesn't mean I despise you because you might like him. I may not appreciate your opinion, but it doesn't mean we should resort to tribalism. Coexistence is possible. Having said that, let's get started. In The Apprentice, Writer Gabriel Sherman and Director Ali Abbasi paint the portrait of an impressionable young adult who wasn't born but molded into the man we know now. It's like the business version of The Devil's Advocate. In this case, the devil comes in the form of famed New York City lawyer Roy Cohn. A man who assisted in the arrangement and execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg for allegedly stealing atomic secrets and handing them over to the Soviet Union. It turns out that Cohn had conversations with the judge without Rosenberg's attorney present. A complete ethical breach in the court of law. He was also instrumental in the McCarthy hearings accusing US Federal Government employees of committing espionage for the Soviet Union in exchange for their closeted homosexuality to remain a secret. Like Trump, Cohn's biggest weakness is hypocrisy. Something Americans commonly have and is the element that shapes our modern democracy.
The Apprentice isn't a smear piece on the orange man. Ali Abbasi tells the story of how someone who may be good or morally in the middle can be turned to evil. To some degree, the accuracy in this movie is pretty on point, minus some scenes that were obviously fictionalized to compress the narrative. Specifically, a seqeuence where Trump walks in on Roy Cohn doing what you could imagine he did behind closed doors. I doubt DT ever saw that. Donald may be a bigot, but like most men with hate in their hearts, Don might not know that he's racist. As acclaimed Author and Orator Fran Lebowitz once said, "It's worse to be called a racist than it is to be a racist." To him, Roy is "one of the good ones" among the gay community.
The plot starts with Fred Trump (Martin Donovan) being sued by the US Government for discriminating against black renters in his apartment buildings. Trump's building asks them for four times the amount of rent and often turns them away. With the case weighing down on Fred, his son Donald (Sebastian Stan) seeks out help for his father. Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong) turns out to be the man for the job. Not only does Cohn represent Fred Trump, but becomes a mentor to Donald.
Cohn teaches the rules that Trump lives by today. Rule 1: attack, attack, attack. Always boast about yourself so you can dominate. Rule 2: Admit nothing. Deny everything. Have we ever once heard Donald Trump apologize for anything? When has Trump reversed a position or stated he was wrong? That will never happen. Rule 3: No matter what happens, you always claim victory and never admit defeat. No matter who wins in this election (which probably will be Trump), Donald Trump will never admit he lost. If he wants to insight another riot, he'll do so with the snap of his fingers. Even if Kamala Harris wins with a landslide, Trump will just do the same thing he did in the last election. Plus, he'll get away with it again.
Donald Trump is humanized in the movie. He doesn't act like a standup guy who becomes corrupted. Trump's mostly indifferent to cruelty. But he's still sweet to his family. Sebastian Stan gives a performance that's a mixed bag but one that ultimately makes the character come full circle. In the beginning, Stan sounds nothing like Donald Trump. He's soft-spoken and nervous. It's not until he meets Roy Cohn that he emerges in the middle act more as the Don of today. However, it's the third act where Stan has all of Trump's mannerisms down to exact precision, from the body language to the rising and falling of the voice. Sebastian Stan morphs into Trump without doing an intentional spot-on voice or SNL impression.
The real standout of the film is Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn. Strong isn't afraid to play unlikeable characters, whether it be a nepo baby poser hardass like Kendall Roy in Succession or an abusive father in Armageddon Time. Jeremy Strong is thin as a rail, but he commands the screen with an intimidating presence. Roy Cohn may not be able to beat you senseless, but he'll knock you out legally. Whatever isn't legal, Cohn will bend the law to make it legal. There's a condescension in Cohn that Jeremy Strong delivers so well. You just want to punch him in the face because he's amazing at playing smug so believably.
Roy Cohn's the devil incarnate, enamoring his protege with his knowledge. That wisdom eventually becomes a weapon Donald uses on everyone. Donald Trump didn't morph into the MAGA monster despite a completely unnecessary scene where he's given the "Make America Great Again" slogan. According to this film, he was an easily corrupt kid who could let go of his principles in order to become successful. That's probably because his father taught him to be cruel. Although Fred Trump claims in the movie that he's not racist, his actions say otherwise, subconsciously making Donald a racist himself.
The eldest son in the family, Fred Jr. (Charlie Carrick), is denounced by his father for being a pilot instead of pursuing a career as a successful businessman. Dad's mental abuse leads to Freddy drinking himself to oblivion. Donald cares for Fred. He gives him money, a bed for him to sleep in, and acts as a friend to him. Perhaps one of his only friends. For a movie this works in creating compassion for a deplorable person. If you've read Too Much and Never Enough (written by Donald's niece, Mary Trump), you'd discover that the reality was quite different than the movie.
According to Mary Trump's book, Donald joined Fred in mocking his brother. In the movie, at one point, Donald gets very emotional when thinking about his brother. He starts to ball next to his wife, Ivana (Maria Bakalova). I have a feeling Donald Trump is not a very emotional guy. The filmmakers take some liberties with the script. I can understand this, as a narrative is rarely engaging if your protagonist is terrible to begin with. Watching The Apprentice is like watching Revenge of the Sith. We want to see how Anakin Skywalker becomes Darth Vader. Trump has never had Anakin's honor. He's a morally questionable person who gets pushed over the edge, falling to his worst instincts. Similar to Vader, he was easily used by a manipulative mentor who taught him to seek power.
As a character piece, The Apprentice is an interesting, mostly accurate look into the darkness of men's hearts. If born into enormous wealth, sheltered from the real world, and raised to be racist, simple-minded, and cruel to others, who's to say you wouldn't turn into Donald Trump, either? Maybe you wouldn't, as every human mind is different. People may not be born evil. Hitler didn't come out of the womb trying to kill everyone in the delivery room. But the human mind, for some, may be missing the components necessary when discerning empathy from apathy. Some serial killers just kill because their minds don't know any better. Trump may be heartless, but has he always been crazy? Perhaps his environment fostered a narcissistic personality disorder, letting it blossom toward the highest power in the world.
The Apprentice comes off like an episode of Succession, with its shaky camerawork and fast zooms that look like something lifted from an unaired documentary. The style is unnecessary. If you want to go with a documentary style, shoot the film with old cameras to capture the grainy look of found footage from the 1970s and 80s. Mix it between super 16mm film to an emulated VHS (so you can maintain a wider aspect ratio). Making it look like a popular television show is stylistically lazy. Although I don't have many complaints about the movie, I wish it had examined Don's childhood a little more. How was he confined from the poor to the middle class? How did his relationship develop with his big brother? Did Donald love, or was he afraid of his father? I don't need a birth-to-death biopic but something with a little more backstory to flesh out the protagonist.
The Apprentice starts slow, making me think it's going to be soft on Trump. When Trump starts to become the Donald we all know, his turn to evil aggressively gets worse. DT begins to mistreat everyone who supports him. At one point, he does something unforgivable to his wife. The film takes chances but no big chances. It's not politically neutral, nor is it an ad against Trump. Will it have any revelations that will sway voters opinions? No. Unless there's a tape of Trump burning down a white church with everyone in it, he's untouchable. Even then, a majority of Americans would question if the footage was real. By following Roy Cohn's rules, Trump has formed reality into what he sees fit. We're watching the origin story of America's demise. It's far better than a movie of the week, but it could be more.
There are films about bad people who were never decent that can lead as an example of how to make a Trump movie. Films like There Will Be Blood paint a complicated portrait of a hateful man who wants to love his son but won't allow himself to. Only focussing on money. Please give me something more like that! The Apprentice probably won't be remembered years from now. It's a good film but not one good enough to go in the history books. It'll be forgotten like Oliver Stone's W.
