“You create your own reality. Truth is malleable,” Roy Cohn says to young Donald Trump in the new film “The Apprentice.”
That's the lesson the bright-eyed scion from Queens will learn on his way to the White House.
The crude patriotism expressed by both Mr. Trump and Mr. Cohn may be selfish, but it's hard not to think it's preferable to the gloomy inertia that's dragging this once-great city down.
But this could also be a warning to anyone looking to make a movie about Trump. The reality distortion surrounding the 45th president is affecting not only his fans but also his critics.
humans, myths, monsters
Trump is one of the most controversial figures in modern history. Depending on who you ask, a populist savior or an angry fascist.
It's almost impossible to paint him in a neutral or sympathetic light and grapple with humanity under the accumulated debris of 50 years of public life.
As past attempts, Showtime's “The Comey Rule” — Blatant “resistance” propaganda with no interest in providing a coherent picture of the inner workings of the Trump administration — no need to bother trying.
As a result, most film and television versions of Trump barely manage to live up to Alec Baldwin's crude “Saturday Night Live” caricature, driven by partisan resentment and fascinated by Trump's often obnoxious public persona. exceeds.
Mr. Trump in training
“The Apprentice” largely avoids this trap by approaching its subject matter indirectly. Instead of a fully formed scourge of democracy, it gives us a portrait of an artist by trade as a young man.
Set in the 1970s and 1980s, the film begins with a young Donald Trump struggling to break free from his rough, domineering father and modest suburban real estate empire.
A company vice president whose job is to go door-to-door collecting overdue rent from disgruntled tenants, the young Mr. Trump dreams of turning his family business into something bigger, but he faces racial discrimination. is blocked by a federal lawsuit alleging housing discrimination (a charge hinted at in the film, which is true).
Only in a chance meeting with Roy Cohn, the notorious Joseph McCarthy prosecutor and political fixer, did Trump find his way out of his father's shadow. Cohn coaches this ambitious big man through the early stages of his career, teaching him three basic rules for winning: attack, deny everything, and never admit defeat.
sympathy for donald
Echoing themes from “Citizen Kane” and classic Greek tragedy, “The Apprentice” presents Trump's rise as a cautionary tale. Director Ali Abbasi and screenwriter Gabriel Sherman are smart enough to realize that the hollowing out of their protagonists requires a sympathetic core to be effective.
On the surface, the film isn't shy about its disdain for men and their influences. The family's patriarch, Fred Sr., was unabashedly racist, and Cohn dropped homophobic slurs and rambled on about what liberals and socialists stole from great men. One of Trump's opening scenes features landlord Cohn threatening to evict a Section 8 tenant who is overburdened with medical bills.
Trump himself is portrayed as a sexual adulterer who goes so far as to rape his wife (As Ivana Trump claimed in her 1990 divorce deposition and later recanted). The film continues to work overtime to reach its dark conclusion, with the disciple ruthlessly cutting down his master.
surgical strike
“The Apprentice” ends with graphic close-up shots of scalp reduction surgery and liposuction (on a patient shamefully suggested to be Trump), highlighting Trump’s ultimate dehumanization and moral depravity. . This clinical and eerie scene, evoking the abominable presence of Darth Vader and Dr. Frankenstein, makes the film's meaning clear. So we have just witnessed the creation of a monster.
Trump may be a monster, but he is also a product of his environment. As The Apprentice carefully crafts, New York City during this time is corrupt, and even the iconic Chrysler Building is in foreclosure. The crude patriotism expressed by both Mr. Trump and Mr. Cohn may be selfish, but it's hard not to think it's preferable to the gloomy inertia that's dragging this once-great city down.
According to Abbasihis goal was not to portray Trump as a “caricature, crooked politician, hero, or whatever you think of him” but as a human being. as politiko put it downhe is an antihero. “He's a tragic figure, but he's not a bad guy.”
high rise hamlet
Sebastian Stan brings this tragic vibe to his portrayal of President Trump, especially in scenes with his alcoholic brother Freddie (a fittingly dissolute Charlie Carrick), evoking a tenderness not often associated with the former president. are. Even if the Winter Soldier's face is occasionally distracting, it does an excellent job of capturing the subject's more bizarre eccentricities, speech patterns, and mannerisms.
this is quality moviesto use one of Trump's favorite descriptors. But that nuance could well hurt its commercial prospects. Despite being touted as “the movie Donald Trump doesn't want you to see” (spurred by Trump's threat to sue the filmmakers for “pure malicious defamation”), The Apprentice ' has not sold well even after a week since its theatrical release.
As it turns out, there weren't many surprises in October. But perhaps it was too much to ask a well-crafted historical drama like The Apprentice to compete with a gripping drama unfolding in real time before your eyes.
Trump is not someone who dwells on the past, and no one is attracted to him, whether out of love or hate. Where he's been is far less fascinating than what he's going to do.
