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The Apprentice (2024)

The Apprentice (2024)

Trump’s villain origin story is expectedly infuriating, but also endlessly watchable thanks to strong character performances

7.0

Movie

Canada, Denmark
English
Drama, History
2024
ALI ABBASI
Ben Sullivan, Catherine McNally, Charlie Carrick
122 min

TLDR

‘80s New York was really something, huh?

What it's about

In the early 70s, famed lawyer Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong) takes a young Donald Trump (Sebastian Stan) under his wings and mentors him about power, status, and making it big in the Big Apple.

The take

The Apprentice is as much about Roy Cohn as it is about the titular mentee, a very green Donald Trump. It’s Cohn who teaches Trump the dirty tricks and the power moves, and it’s he who instills in him his everlasting entitlement. It’s also Cohn who arguably steals the show. As expected, Strong disappears into his character and is at once terrifying and pathetic, but always arresting. Stan is less effective as Trump, but his more subtle turn as the real estate mogul still works, especially when set against Cohn’s more hardened and vulnerable persona. The film is powered by these two; without them, it moves like any old tale about greed, power, and betrayal. It doesn’t shy away from Trump’s known grotesqueries, but it also could’ve benefited from leaning into them more, a la Wolf of Wall Street. As it stands, The Apprentice is familiar fare elevated by the engaging performances of two of Hollywood’s best-working character actors.

What stands out

I know I said Strong steals the show, but Stan’s attention to details in bringing Trump to life deserves praise.

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