While not marketed as a horror film, “The Apprentice” depicts the dark underworld of New York real estate and swinging sex parties during the 70s and 80s, when psychopath lawyer Roy Cohn mentored our worst Trumpian nightmare into existence.
I won’t delve too deeply because film reviews are not my forte, though I love movies and could wax on about this one all day.
The new Trump biopic, expertly directed by Ali Abbasi with Sebastian Stan crushing the Trump role, is a nuanced, at times sympathetic, look at the making of the man who upended American politics, became the first convicted former U.S. president, and most recently suggested he’d use the military against his political enemies were he to return to the White House.
The smartly written screenplay by Gabriel Sherman “weaves” a Trumpian tale that begins with a young Donald trying to collect the rent from tenants in one of his daddy’s apartment buildings…and getting his ass handed to him.
But then the perpetually thirsty Trump runs into lawyer Roy Cohn – the man many folks considered the devil – who then took Trump under his leathery wing and remade him in his image.
Like so many origin stories, we know the broad brushstrokes of Trump’s earlier years thanks to his penchant for leaking his own gossip fodder.
However, “The Apprentice” breathes genuine emotion into moments like the death of Donald’s brother Fred Jr., whose alcoholism took his life at an early age and inspired the former president not to drink.
Sebastian Stan shook off his Marvel Movie veneer and slid into the increasingly bloated skin of Trump over the course of more than a decade.
His performance and evolution from real estate neophyte to the megalomaniac we know today is not only a “cinematic triumph” and other such cliches but should serve as a stark warning about what could yet come to be were Trump reelected.
Because the young man who couldn't get all the rent out of an old lady (tiny spoiler) morphed into this America-mutilating fiend, who's poised to unleash the full weight of the federal government on his perceived enemies, including network news outlets and late-night hosts who make fun of him.
And true to horror film form, Trump has not only risen from the ashes of his own demise, he’s seemingly grown stronger, ready to torture and maim his victims – i.e., the sane Americans among us, anew and with greater bloodlust.
“The Apprentice,” it may turn out, isn’t as scary as real life.
