REVIEW: Top tier performances power ‘The Apprentice’

In a vacuum, releasing a biopic about a well-known figure isn’t that big of a deal. But we’re certainly not in a vacuum right now.

This film indeed is about the Republican candidate for president Donald Trump, who’s seeking a second term in office. However, the movie is set decades before he entered the realm of politics. The picture begins in 1973 with a 27-year-old Trump who has a vision for development, but few prospects.

Portrayed by Sebastian Stan, Trump is working with his father Fred’s (Martin Donovan) real estate company, but wants to develop his own buildings, too. His journey gets a jumpstart when he meets and befriends attorney Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong), who becomes a mentor to Trump, showing him how to build his own path in life, regardless of the consequences.

After helming several foreign films in categories such as horror and fantasy, director Ali Abbasi turned his attention to an American biopic about Donald Trump. At first glance, it’s easy to be skeptical about such a movie. At this point, what don’t we know about the real estate mogul, television host, convicted felon and twice-impeached president?

However, despite a feeling like everything’s already been said and shown about Trump, Abbasi and writer Gabriel Sherman manage to create a rather captivating picture. The film is an origin story, and it successfully presents the transformation of the figure from an ambitious young man with some empathy to a person ready to bulldoze anything and anyone in his path to win.

To portray this, Abbasi utilizes framework from two different genres: gangster movies and cutthroat business films. Trump’s rise in power, driven by big aspirations, coinciding with him becoming more ruthless in his ventures, is very reminiscent of rises to power one would see in a mob movie.

At the same time, the flick also includes several moments of underhanded tactics and power plays, often seen in films where business means war. Abbasi and Co. successfully use these story structures to create a mostly effective viewing experience about an individual’s climb up the ladder.

What really makes the use of these blueprints work is the mentorship angle with Roy Cohn, which demonstrates the attorney’s influence on Trump’s character arc. It’s always a plus when you can tell a younger character has absorbed a lot of strategies and personality traits from a mentor.

It reminds one of 2016’s “Moonlight.” Not that the main characters are the same at all, but in the sense that the central figures in both films so clearly shaped themselves after male role models in their life. In “The Apprentice,” it’s clear how the character molds himself after Roy Cohn’s aggressive style, and becomes an even more intense version. It’s a compelling path to watch.

There’s no doubt that the lead performances help the film a great deal, too. Strong, who collected several accolades for his great work on the series “Succession,” is deserving of awards with this movie as well. He’s phenomenal in capturing the character’s fast paced and cold-blooded nature in business.

Strong is also great at portraying Roy’s efforts to keep his life as a gay man a secret during his time in conservative spaces, as well as his growing distrust of Trump. The latter is the classic situation of a man creating a monster that gets out of their control.

Stan also deserves a ton of credit for an arguably more difficult role. Trump is so recognizable as a speaker with specific mannerisms, and Stan had to portray the character with honesty and authenticity to avoid parody. Stan manages to do so quite well.

There are a few moments that lean a bit into pure impression, but for the most part Stan performs Trump as a true character who’s humanized. It’s impressive how he is able to portray Trump both as almost a dreamer wanting success by doing things the right way before taking cutthroat turns. This is true in scenes with his business career, his family, and his first wife Ivana (Maria Bakalova).

The problem is that transition isn’t as properly shown as one would hope. There’s a point in the movie where Trump goes from being a more naive, amiable man to a more aggressive, contentious individual, and it comes across like there’s a scene missing. Another detriment to the film is a moment where assault is shown that seemed unnecessary.

Those issues, and the fact that a couple scenes were a bit too on the nose, deduct from the film a bit. However, “The Apprentice” is still a good biographical film showing a man’s rise to power, disregarding morals in the process. 4.25 out of 5.