The Apprentice is one of the film that no one asked for but now that its here you can’t look away from it. The direction, cinematography, lighting, sets and most of all the performances all are worth praising but the film majorly avoids taking sides. For first half it makes you like Trump and for the other the pre-existing hate returns, so it doesn’t really add to his public narrative, the reason for its existence left questioning. But the film is worth the watch for its art.
The film begins with the embodiment of what talking to Donald Trump must feeling like, watch him obsess over successful people and what their life and influential existence is like. Trump takes his date to a members only place to shows off all the people he hangs out with, to show off him being the youngest member of the club but he doesn’t fit in. Trumo doesn’t quite fit in even after crossing paths with Roy Cohn.
While Trump’s father is being investigated by federal government for discrimination against African-American tenants Cohn eventually offers to help and in turn also takes Donald into his wing.
With Cohn by his side Trump begins to look the part, hang out with the right people and slowly also beings get away with everything. The missing confidence builds up and the Donald Trump today comes into play. However, none of it would have happened if not for Roy’s 3 rules –Attack, Always deny and Always Claim victory. These rules go on to shape the character to its path of destruction, but because of the last rule the downfall is only in our eyes.
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Meanwhile, the camera and the sets dont miss a beat in replication the essence of 70 and 80’s New York. The screenplay remains unexpectly funny for the first half ironically about the 80s NYC and foreshadowing the known future of Trump. In moments, the film is almost in awe of its character building him up in the eyes of the audience to quickly pull him down in the second half of the film.
Sebastian Stan is incredible as Donald Trump since the first frame to the last. The maker also cleverly use lights on the sets and camera angles to make him look like Trump in complicated shots as he gets older than Stan’s age. Meanwhile, Stan himself embodies the character so well its hard to separate them. From the way he rests his face to the more older his gets the most delusional the conversation become, Stan has Trump down to the dot.
But Jeremy Strong’s intense performance is the winner of the film – intense and emotional as their relationship evolves through out the runtime of the film. It is Jeremy’s Roy that makes Trump the killer and the loser of the film as the duo would describe him. One scene does show, Roy confronting Trump and reminding him that, he made him however, Trump has emodied the rules so much that he can’t even be true to himself.
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Overall, The Apprentice has layer and layers of characters and subtext to offer for different kind of audience, but the performances and direction is the best reason to watch this film.
Cover artwork by Patrick Gawande/Mashable India
