PalCinema Review: The Apprentice

The day before the inauguration is a great time to get to know our new-ish President...

January 19, 2025

FILM: THE APPRENTICE

DIRECTED BY: ALI ABBASI

STARRING: SEBASTIAN STAN, JEREMY STRONG, MARIA BAKALOVA

RATING: 3 out of 4 stars

By Dan Pal

I did not see The Apprentice film (or TV series for that matter) when it was released last Fall. Like roughly half of this country, I couldn’t bear to spend two hours watching a film about then former President Trump. As the year was ending and Trump got re-elected, I was even less interested in having that experience. But then the critics groups started chiming in rather positively about Ali Abbasi’s film starring Sebastian Stan as Trump and Jeremy Strong as his lawyer, the infamous Roy Cohn. Chicago Indie Critics, the group in which I am a member, nominated Stan as Best Actor, but he lost. I’m also a member of Film Independent which has nominated both actors for its Spirit Awards. So, I decided it was time to bite the bullet and check it out.

Stan is very good as Trump and Strong is also impressive, even if in the latter sections of the film, with Cohn’s declining health and falling out of favor a bit with Trump, it’s hard not to think of the sad, sullen figure Kendall that Strong played in the great HBO/Max series Succession. These performances do make the film worth seeing. Stan has had a particularly good year having also starred in A Different Man, which I didn’t formally review but his work in it is also amazing to watch. Essentially Stan is a transformative actor (he was also great in the limited series Pam & Tommy as Pamela Anderson’s husband Tommy Lee.) He has the seasoned ability to master accents and intonations that very much put viewers into the characters’ presences. Here, he doesn’t exactly impersonate Trump, in part because he’s playing a much younger version of the future President, but he captures some of his speech patterns and, particularly, his drive and greed.

Watching the film, I couldn’t help but think about previous movies which would often uphold the myth of former heroic U.S. Presidents and their rise to greatness such as Henry Fonda in 1939’s Young Mr. Lincoln and Daniel Day Lewis as the same character in Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln in 2012. Such films emphasize the struggles and humble beginnings of the future respected President. The Apprentice though illustrates the darker rise to power of Trump. Initially he comes across as ambitious and part of a privileged family but then his relationship to Roy Cohn begins to transform him into something colder and significantly more ruthless.

Cohn, some may remember, was the lawyer that helped Senator Joseph McCarthy in his hunt for communists in the 1950s. He famously helped prosecute Julius and Ethel Rosenberg who were charged with espionage and later convicted and executed. I first became aware of Cohn when I saw the Broadway production of Angels in America in the 1990s. That Tony-winning show depicted the later years of Cohn’s life as a closeted gay man who eventually succumbed to AIDS. While The Apprentice doesn’t really touch on the former period it does address the latter as Cohn became ill around the time he was working with Trump. Cohn never came out publicly and claimed to be sick with cancer, but others knew the truth about his condition.

One of the philosophies that Cohn teaches Trump early on in their relationship was to “admit nothing, deny everything, and always claim victory.” Sound familiar? It’s hard not recognize how much Cohn influenced the way Trump has since spoken to the American public – and how many people have bought into his rhetoric. By that token, watching The Apprentice is a lesson on early Trump. He’s not a Lincoln, George Washington, Roosevelt, or Jimmy Carter. Rather he comes across as a man who simply wants money, power, and stature in the world.

While the first half of the film is a bit of a slow burn, it is later when Trump’s power usurps that of Cohn’s and his selfish priorities become crystal clear that the film really turns a corner. Oscar nominated actress Maria Bakalova plays Trump’s wife Ivana, who he claims to find unattractive and effectively rapes her when she turns on him. It’s a particularly difficult scene to watch but since it was reportedly discussed by Ivana in a memoir, Abbasi included it to further emphasize the lengths Trump can be capable of reaching. The arcs of both Trump and Cohn’s characters are sad and far from honorable and that does make for an interesting narrative and film at this moment in American history. So, while I won’t be watching Trump’s second inauguration this week, I’m glad I got more of an understanding of who our returning leader is and why I can only try to have hope for what life will be like four years from now.

The Apprentice is currently available to rent/buy on Amazon Prime.

For the archive of PalCinema reviews, click here.