A Very Naughty Boy? The Apprentice
Less eulogizing Trump and more about portraying viciousness with brilliance by Sebastian Stan. Utilising a choppy documentary style, director Ali Abbasi and writer Gabriel Sherman, seek to understand why Donald Trump has become the horror of today.
We encounter a shy, unconfident Trump in the 1970’s (1973 it turns out), who during a boring date, meets legal mover and shaker Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong). Impressed by the impressive, desperate for a father-figure in a home where his father belittles all of them, Trump sees a saviour in Roy, who he believes can fix all of his problems. Cohn is corrupt, taping all the great and good who come to him to use as leverage later. He also claims to be a patriot defending the nation against those who would destroy it — and using what he knows about others to destroy them. Or get them to do his bidding. Be a killer, is his mantra, and we see him in action in court, preying on people’s weaknesses (and decency).
Fighting a legal battle over apparently segregated housing Trump runs, and keen to build a luxury hotel in run-down central New York which makes a profit, Cohn can fix it all for Trump — and he does. But at a price, Trump becomes his protegee - suited, styled, scripted, mixed by Roy. Only Trump takes Cohn’s three life rules and runs with them on turbo overdrive, made in his mentor’s image and then some.
Very soon, Trump starts to imitate Roy’s way of speaking and schmoozing and to do what he wants his way. He also finds a trophy wife in Ivana (Maria Bakalova), who is intelligent, motivated and beautiful. Meanwhile, Ivana starts to feel like there are three in the marriage as Roy compiles a pre-nup (including gifts) and catches her wedding bouquet. Soon, as they start having children, Trump dismisses her as a dull business partner, telling him what to do — and as we see later in the film, she’s a bit of property to be treated as he feels. Which isn’t a lot — Trump says that he feels nothing for her. No matter how beautiful she is on the outside (including Trump instigated plastic surgery), Trump is bored by her. Whilst they’ve started off being very much a team, deep cracks start to appear as Trump builds up business debts, stops sleeping and increases his killer instinct.
The lack of feeling extends to others it seems as Trump’s troubled pilot brother Fred Jr. (Charlie Carrick) is constantly dismissed with money. Yet Trump does have emotions — we see this in his horrified reactions to Roy’s wild partying; his pursuit of engaged Ivana; his care for his children and his weeping at his brother’s sudden demise.
However, we also see Roy’s rules coming into play — the claiming of failures as victories, of the killer instinct to be successful and acclaimed, the terror. These come back to bite Roy — literally. Whilst we only see Trump’s documented mistreatment and abuse of women once, it’s hinted at in his eyeing of women, and in the way his secretary moves towards him trembling when he asks her to come closer and shut the door.
Uniquely, the movie uses some extreme events not to titillate or salivate, but to make us think. We see Ivana taking nervous deep breaths in the car before forcing herself out to perform and shine — she has to live with her attacker. We see some of the sadness of Roy’s life as the HIV/AIDS crisis comes into the public eye, and Trump’s misunderstanding of it as he fumigates the dining room where Roy has been the night before.
Whilst this isn’t a movie you can ‘enjoy’, you can enjoy the excellent soundtrack by Martin Dirkov. Most of all, this thoughtful movie is about the pursuit of power and what going out to get it does to you. Moreover, as the elections loom, think about who you want to have in power over you, acting in your name.
Support my writing and future cultural adventures for the price of a cup of coffee at Kofi: https://ko-fi.com/susanadventuresinculture
