President Donald Trump is a man who divides the country. You’re either with him or against him.  Who he is today isn’t who he was forty-five years ago, but The Apprentice shows why he became the man we all know today. The director Ali Abbasi created a film that some will not like, but it is as accurate a portrayal of this man and his lawyer friend, Roy Cohn, as I could imagine. This is not an indictment of these men. It’s a biopic showing who they truly were and who one of them would become in the future.

Donald Trump (Sébastian Stan) is a young man just out of college who works for his father Fred Trump collecting rents from his renter’s in his properties. While at an exclusive men’s club for the high society of New York with a date, he is asked to join a man named Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong) at his table full of gangsters and criminals. After talking for a while Donald convinces Roy to be his lawyer and represent him in a civil lawsuit against families saying he is discriminating against them. This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship, to steal a quote from Casablanca.

Besides the two actors I’ve mentioned, one more is a key player in this story and she is Maria Bakalova as Ivana Trump. She was a model who caught the eye of this up-and-comer in the real estate industry of New York. He wanted her so he could create a family and heirs for his impending empire. She fell for his charm and took his money and gifts. What woman wouldn’t do this, in this day and age? She was a trophy wife and couldn’t get out of this relationship until it was too late. Bakalova is fine in the role, but it was very evident why Trump wanted her until he didn’t. 

Roy Cohn lived by three rules that were adopted by Trump in later years. The three rules are, Rule1:Attack, Attack, Attack, Rule 2: admit nothing, deny everything, and Rule 3: Claim victory, even if you lose. A Nation of Men, Not Laws, Fuck What People Think Of You, Win At All Costs, these are quotes from Cohn. They were adopted by Trump. These are some of the things that he lives by, every day.  The man he is today was honed and crafted by these thoughts he now lives by. They have proven to be damaging thoughts. We as citizens all know what he has become and why he’s so dangerous.

Sébastien Stan has played real people in his career in the past. Jeff Galulli in L’Tonya is one of them. As an actor, he is very good at balancing the difference between comedy and drama. He’s played action characters in the MCU namely Bucky Barnes aka the Winter Soldier. He played many different characters in horror films and other genres. This may, in fact, be the best performance in his career. He was able to become this man that many Americans hate,  but also admire. He got the accent down pat, the facial tics, and even made statements about himself and his body that were executed to perfection. This is one of the best performances of the year thus far by any actor in any role. It doesn’t matter who he’s playing. Stan is a great actor and this proves it.

Jeremy Strong is an actor most of America knows as Kendall Roy in the massive hit HBO drama Succession. He has been in Selma as a Boston priest who stood with Martin Luther King and his supporters. Even though he won an Emmy in 2020 for playing his character in Succession. He goes through a change in look and character throughout this film. His look was eerily similar to Cohn and then, as noted, the disease he got Aids changed him even more. Strong became this man and the dialogue he was given as this man was very much like him in every way. He was rude, crude, and vulgar with his thoughts. Strong captured that about this man perfectly.

A lot of films use makeup and hairstyling as a way to create fictional characters and recreate real people for biopics. Both Stan and Strong have been a part of these craftspeople. The team in this movie turned them into these men and I almost wasn’t able to differentiate them from who they are. That’s how good this team was at doing their jobs. This helped these two men and others who play celebrities that popped up during this movie including Andy Warhol, and Rupert Murdock. George Steinbrenner and Ed Koch. This is truly awards-worthy makeup and hairstyling on the level of Vice, The Whale, or Monster.

Abbasi did a great job capturing this time in history. He was able to recreate locations, and various television broadcasts and changed styles at some points during the film to make it look like a documentary. He even went as far as using songs from the times “New Order” Blue Monday song, and Pet Shop Boys’ “Always on My Mind”, So much from the clothes and cars and so forth were meticulously created. He did a fantastic job at bringing this time of history and the people depicted in the film to life. 

It has been widely discussed that Donald Trump has tried to get this film blocked from coming out because it’s unflattering towards him. One of my biggest pet peeves about biopics, musical, sports, or otherwise is that they should be an unflinching portrayal of who they are representing.  Bohemian Rhapsody is a prime example of what you don’t do with a biopic and Oppenheimer is a great example of what you do to create the best biopic. The Apprentice is one of the best biopics about real people I’ve ever seen. The actors capture the people they are playing perfectly. The makeup and hairstyling team did a great job recreating these people. The director has made a film that is very unflinching about these people, mainly Trump and Cohn.  Even with Trump’s refusal to admit this is a great portrayal of him, audiences and critics will love this movie. It’s truly a great biopic that does what biopics are supposed to do. Tell the story of these people in as truthful a way as possible. From what I remember as a kid from the television news and newspapers I read. 

The Apprentice is a phenomenal depiction of two men who were reprehensible/despicable. Who Trump would become is very evident in his actions many years before. No wonder he wants to distance himself from this biopic. It doesn’t depict him in a good light at all. That being said, Stan and Cohn give awards-worthy performances as these men. The technical aspects including cinematography,  costumes, and most especially makeup and hairstyling are all first-rate. Abbasi didn’t shy away from telling the story like it was supposedto be told. That’s what is so great about this biopic. It tells it like it is. Whether Trump likes it or not this is a great biopic and it deserves much awards consideration. 

4 ½ stars

Dan Skip Allen