The Apprentice uncovers Trump's life and the secrets of his terrible mentor

In 2024, the film that most addresses Donald Trump, albeit indirectly, is certainly Civil War. Alex Garland writes and directs an American parable about the decline of democracy and the onset of a panic state, caused by the rebellion of various states and the collapse of control and security bodies like the FBI, dissolved by the President himself, portrayed by Nick Offerman. The film, an essay on journalism and the transmission of a profession, is an extreme depiction of what could happen to a country on the brink of a nervous breakdown, whose fate will be decided in November 2024 with the election of the next occupant of the White House. Even at Venice81, politics took to the red carpet with a less mainstream and more peripheral film, Justin Kurzel’s The Order, which takes a journey back to the roots of white supremacy to depict the tumble of the January 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection, where Trump supporters stormed Capitol Hill. In this mosaic, where everyone wants to add their piece to explain how a man was elected who, according to his professional and media profile, had the bare minimum qualifications to become President of the United States, Ali Abbasi takes an even further step back by revisiting Trump’s early days in The Apprentice - Trump’s Origins. This project, featuring Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong, serves as an origin story to show how the businessman and father of Trump Tower became history’s worst villain, even surpassing his mentor. Some people make themselves, while others let themselves be molded. And while Trump may deny it ("Deny, deny always" is one of his rules), audiences will get a deeper look into lawyer Roy Cohn’s figure and his influence, finding the true demon to blame.

Born into an observant Jewish family, Roy Cohn, a New York lawyer, was chief counsel to Senator Joseph McCarthy and deputy prosecutor in the espionage trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. The puppeteer who guided Trump’s early steps was a devil lacking any moral compass, both toward others and, perhaps, toward himself. Disbarred for misconduct and a homosexual who denied his sexual orientation until his death in 1986 due to AIDS-related complications, Cohn’s character is embedded in Trump’s DNA to the point where the two become identical, interchangeable. And so do their roles of power. From his position of influence, Cohn introduced the young businessman to the inner sanctums of power, the private clubs where major deals were struck, and taught him the tricks to trap, blackmail, and manipulate high-ranking officials. On the other hand, Trump, with big dreams larger than his own pockets, allowed himself to be molded by the shady figure, only to later do the same. One could say he learned from the worst of the best. He learned to attack, deny in the face of evidence, and never admit defeat. These tactics, which may sound familiar, are the same ones the boy-turned-man, turned into the highest office holder in the USA, followed for the rest of his life, including during his campaign. They were imparted by a friend, mentor, and surrogate father whom he eventually had to leave behind.

Ali Abbasi relies on Gabriel Sherman’s script, going back in time to create a classic biopic, punctuated with seeds that would later grow into the delusions of grandeur of the 45th President of the United States. And although today’s Trump is a constant presence in the film, the director and screenwriter transport the audience to a past that is not only historical but also shaped by the aesthetics and media that introduced the man and entrepreneur to the public. It’s no coincidence that the title refers to The Apprentice, the reality show through which most people came to know Trump, and which he agreed to participate in 2004 after a series of financial fiascos in the 1990s. The film’s visual style recreates the texture of the 1970s, when the story begins, and moves through the undefined grain of the 80s, blending form and content, presenting the same image of Donald Trump from that era, with the media’s obsessive interest in the crazy investor that helped shape his myth. The present is only a distant echo, and the desire is to tell the story of the making of a man through the communication tools of the decades that come to life in the film, all captured with a constant handheld camera style that evokes the principles of documentary filmmaking, emphasizing that what we are seeing is real and actually happened. Inside the film lies everything we have (unfortunately) come to know about the current Donald Trump. The slogans, the ads, the public appearances, the lifestyle, the TV that would later become his home. And it even opens a door into his private life: sad, painful, the shameful treatment of his wife Ivana and the marital rape, which in the film serves as an explanation for a marriage’s end but also for a misogynistic attitude within Trump’s worldview, reflected in the infamous “Grab 'em by the pussy” statement that applies both to women in general and to his family.

Classic in its storytelling, refined but above all coherent in style, The Apprentice - Trump’s Origins features a Sebastian Stan performance where Donald communicates through his mouth, through his jaw movements, with lip tics that are subtly accentuated—never excessive, always precise—showing the director Abbasi’s and his actor’s meticulous attention. All the character’s tension flows through the lower part of his face, with Stan making this the focal point for recognizing, with each slight twitch, what the protagonist is thinking. Strong, meanwhile, never quite left Succession. Unsettling and caricatured, not to mock Cohn but because evil often has ridiculous ways, the lawyer is as mephistophelian in spirit as in appearance: bulging eyes and excessive tanning make his gaze even more sunken, giving him a vampiric look that perfectly reflects his blood-sucking soul. The Apprentice is a film that, unlike recent cinematic explorations of the Trump administration, doesn’t delve into the geopolitical consequences of his rise to power but highlights what would inevitably change on a social and cultural level in America, offering a different angle from which to view the former (and perhaps future?) President—one that is much more personal. The human part, rotten like many of his political directives, perfectly complements the ever-present television container. He’s an antagonist like many others. Only this time, unlike in the movies, he wasn’t defeated.