The first half is fantastic.
This is not the film I thought it would be. I figured it would be a left wing takedown, a la Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11," a movie trumpeted by the left, released just before the 2004 election, but despite the flick's condemnation, Bush ended up winning the presidency anyway.
And based on the kerfuffle, studios' refusal to release it, I thought that "The Apprentice" would be an evisceration of Trump.
But this is not what "The Apprentice" is. If anything, I'd call it the modern day "Scarface," not the original, but the Al Pacino remake, which has become a cult favorite amongst drug dealers and gang members everywhere.
You see so much in this film is accurate. America is about winning. The laws are just suggestive guardrails for the rich and powerful. And sure, most people will never play in this league, but they want to, which is why poor people consistently vote against increased taxes for the rich, because they plan to become rich themselves, however delusional that might be.
So what we've got here is Donald Trump's arc with Roy Cohn. Who is played by Jeremy Strong, whom you'll recognize from "Succession," who until the head-nodding tic gets tired in the second half, delivers an Academy Award winning performance. He's that good. As for the tic, the head-bobbing, there's very little footage of Cohn online, I saw one interview, he did move his head, not in the same way, but there must be something there for Strong to have made it such a part of his performance.
Sebastian Stan as Trump is more mellow and more intelligent than the man himself. He's not a cartoon, he's not over the top. He thinks, he learns lessons, and then enters the age of hubris, after he has success building in Manhattan.
This film posits that Trump learned everything he knows from Roy Cohn. Is this true? Here Trump is a mellow wannabe, just a rich man's son, until he meets Cohn, who not only teaches Donald lessons, but greases the skids of his construction success.
Bottom line, the world is fixed. Didn't Trump tell us this himself when he first ran? Saying he could lead because he knew this?
Well, Trump couldn't lead. Not effectively. But he seems to know the score. Politicians are no match for business people. Because the business people have all the MONEY! And as Cyndi Lauper sang, money changes everything.
Maria Bakalova aces the role of Ivana Trump. You'll say to yourself you've seen her before, and then when you look her up online you'll discover she was in the 2020 Borat film. Which opened on Amazon and was the talk of the town for...a couple of weeks.
"The Apprentice" should have opened on Netflix. And it would have gone to number one and everybody would have seen it. How many people are going to go to the theatre to see it when it opens on October 11th?
I don't know anybody who goes to the theatre anymore. Boomers seem to have lost the habit. And youngsters would rather watch YouTube or TikTok. Is "The Apprentice" enough of an event to bring non-superhero movie fans out to the multiplex? We will see.
And all the publicity will be timed to the theatrical release when...
If you saw "The Apprentice," at least for the first half, you would not be able to turn it off.
I mean I know so much of this. But when it's dramatized, when you can see it, it has greater impact.
Friday night I got around to finally watching "The Fabelmans." This is why the Oscars and insiders are so screwed up. They actually thought this would be commercially successful? Spielberg knows how to shoot a movie, but he doesn't know how to write a script. Ultimately a film is about the script, and "The Apprentice" has a good one.
It's a cross between a Mafia movie and a Wall Street movie. Then again, if you knew what went on behind the scenes, you'd believe our business titans are equivalent to the made men of yore.
The tax abatements.
You think it's us versus them. Maybe in politics, then again aren't James Carville and Mary Matalin married?
I learned the truth when Napster hit and Shawn Fanning was a pariah, but as soon as the legal precedent was established in court, the recording industry embraced him.
Know that it's a club, if you pick sides and stay there, don't talk to your competitors, the joke is on you.
And that lesson is in this movie.
There are a ton of lessons in this movie. Maybe well known to those who are familiar with Roy Cohn, but how many people out there are? Hell, the guy died in 1986.
Sure, Trump makes a joke of Cohn's playbook, but that does not mean it does not work. Never admit defeat. Sue if things don't go your way. There are going to be a ton of people sitting at home watching this movie taking notes. This is wisdom.
As for the second half... It's good, but the effect wears off. The first half you feel like the curtain is being pulled back and you're seeing truth. Even the deceased Fred Trump Jr. comes alive. As for the senior Fred, Trump's father, he was a noted a*shole who took it out on his son, but it's not overdone here, there's just the right number of put-downs.
And you see the wooing of Ivana. Eventually she became a cartoon, but as a young woman from Eastern Europe you see her trying to make her way.
This is what native Americans don't understand about Eastern Europe, Russia, third world countries. Life is hard there. Which means you have to learn how to survive. And when these people immigrate to the U.S., if you think they're just like you and me, you're wrong. One of the best parts is when the marriage is depicted as transactional, how much cash is Trump going to give her? (After she calls the wedding off after being presented with Cohn's prenup.)
Trump might be inane and insane in real life, but not in this movie. Yes, after success he's feeling his oats, thinks he's never wrong, but he's not bombastic.
As for the Trumpers who were going to hate the studios that refused to put out this movie...
This is the political landscape we live in. The right wing goes on offense and the left wing cowers, afraid of pissing people off. I'm telling you, most Trumpers will LOVE this film. As for Donald's flaws...doesn't everybody have imperfections, doesn't everybody make mistakes? But Trump is a fighter, and he's fighting for them. And this film delineates a code to live by. Take no prisoners.
So if you were sitting at home just waiting for the release of "The Apprentice" to put a stake in Trump's heart, kill his campaign, you're sorely mistaken. That's not what this film is. It's an origin story. It shows how Donald Trump came to be the person he is. Before he was put on network TV by Mark Burnett and became completely delusional.
This is a good movie. For the first half my mind didn't wander at all, and that's a rare event with today's flicks. We have options, why should we watch this stuff?
But from the very beginning you'll want to watch "The Apprentice." Turn down the lights when you watch it at home. It's dark, dirty and gritty just like New York City.
This is not hagiography, nor is it excoriation.
"The Apprentice" is more real than a documentary. Michael Moore's flicks don't hold a candle to this. They're different things. Moore's are constructed to make you sneer at the offenders.
I won't say you'll finish "The Apprentice" and embrace Trump, but you'll know where he came from, his influences, what made him. You can read this stuff all day long in the press, but when you see it on the screen...
Once again, Sebastian Stan's performance is not over the top. At the beginning he knows what he doesn't know. He's not a bull in a china shop. He's a man with dreams, who wants to be somebody. Isn't that the root of every successful entertainer in America, never mind successful businessman?
Deny it all you want, but this is the way it is.
And it's in this film.
Definitely thumbs up.
Watch it no matter which side of the political fence you're on.
Because first and foremost it's a MOVIE, not a polemic, and you'll ENJOY IT!
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