New York City, 1 9 7 0s. Rent collector Donald Trump meets lawyer Roy Cohn and persuades him to represent his family in a lawsuit filled by the federal government that alleges his father Fred Trump discriminates against Black people by renting mostly to White tenants. Cohn blackmails an official to make the lawsuit go away. Trump wants to re-build the Commodore into Hyatt hotel on East 42nd Street, and Cohn is able to blackmail officials into giving him a tax abatement, thereby making the investment profitable. Cohn mentors Trump that he needs to be willing to do "anything to anyone" to be a success. Trump marries Czech model Ivana and builds the Trump Tower, gaining a fortune. With time, Trump falls out with Cohn, dismissing him as a loser. Cohn dies of AIDS. Trump hires a writer to write a book, "The Art of the Deal".
A biopic on the early days of the Razzie Award Winner for Worst Supporting Actor Donald Trump, "The Apprentice" is a dark satire on abandoning any scruples and doing anything for success. The director Ali Abbasi directs the movie conventionally, but efficiently, with no empty walk, presenting the first half in an objective, restrained way, almost with a human dimension, showing Trump as insecure, humble and struggling, while the second half becomes its exact opposite, a clinical, cynical depiction of a cold Trump-businessman whose only goal is to earn more and more money. "The Apprentice" is an 'origin story' in which the ruthless lawyer Roy Cohn is depicted mentoring a young Trump into becoming ruthless to succeed, giving a philosophy where victory and success are the meaning of life. He will sell his soul for success, but doesn't realize what kind of a system he is invoking—an economy based on endless cruelty. Jeremy Strong gives an excellent and energetic performance as Cohn, while Sebastian Stan also delivers a very good performance, but he does not physically resemble Trump that much, and his voice is not that close to Trump's voice. Maria Bakalova is also powerful as Trump's first wife, Ivana.
"The Apprentice" starts with a sly archive footage of former US President Richard Nixon holding a speech: "I've made my mistakes, but in all my years in public life, I have never profited from public service... And in all my years of public life, I've never obstructed justice... I welcome this kind of examination. Because people have got to know whether or not their President is a crook". In one sequence, as Trump visits Cohn's apartment, he observes photos in which Cohn is seen with many famous people, so they have these dialogues: "How do you mix with all these people?" - "Everybody wants to suck a winner's cock". In another sequence, after blackmailing an official with photos of his gay relationship, and ordering him to make a lawsuit "go away", Cohn says to Trump: "You played sports? They probably taught you to play the ball, not the man. But you see, in reality, it's the total opposite. You play the man, not the ball... This is a nation of men, not laws. There is no right and wrong. There is no morality. There is no truth with a capital T. It's a construct, it's a fiction, it's man-made. None of it matters except winning. That's it." A sobering, nihilistic and sharp psychological analysis of the mentality of success under any cost, and the interwoven link between capitalism, blackmail, bribery and corruption—as well as success being used for therapy for some people's personal neurosis—but the ending feels incomplete and abrupt, failing to bring a more articulated point in the final scene.
Grade:++
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