AWholeCroissant

The Apprentice (2024)
Dir. Ali Abbassi
Writ. Gabriel Sherman
Starring Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Strong, Maria Bakalova

It is an odd feeling, as a morally pure and perfect individual, to feel sympathy for an evil person. Maybe not evil-evil. He isn’t a murderer (even if people have died as a direct result of his actions). It is weird to feel bad for a morally bankrupt and otherwise unsympathetic figure. A sociopath whose only concern seems to be winning regardless of how many lives are ruined along the way or harm done to society. Yet, by the end of The Apprentice from director Ali Abbassi (Border, The Holy Spider), I couldn’t help but see him as a human, feeling compassion for him, especially considering how it all unraveled. Perhaps it was a lack in my own personal knowledge of him beforehand and the film not diving deep enough into his evil deeds. Nonetheless, though it pains me to admit it, I had sympathy for Roy Cohn.

Roy Cohn (1927-1986) was a powerful and influential attorney. Among his misdeeds was being heavily involved in the McCarthy era Communist witch hunts, working on Ronal Reagan’s presidential campaign, and representing people such as Rupert Murdoch. The more I read about this Roy Cohn fella’, the more I come to understand that he. Well, he is a real jerk!

The film focuses on a smaller scale on his less than legal tactics (mostly blackmail) and his rules of life: always attack, deny everything, and always claim victory and never admit defeat. He was a true Machiavellian Prince. What sells this movie is Jeremy Strong’s portrayal of this awful person. It is a performance full of captivating idiosyncrasies from his unnatural posture to his very direct but paradoxically insincere way of speaking. There is a vacancy behind his eyes as he stares. It is not as horrific as some other psychopaths; it is equal parts unnerving and intriguing. 

This facade never fades, his fundamental tenets wouldn’t allow it. Even as AIDS – the very disease the president he helped elect ignored – ravaged him, reduced him. Seeing him still put on this bravado as his body fails, outside of his control, it catches something primal. A fear of death and mortality, a recognition of the fragility of life. To add to the cruel irony, in these final moments, his own apprentice, the monster he helped create, betrayed him. This is not actually a film about Roy Cohn. As much as I would have preferred it, as much as I was captivated when he was on screen and felt it lacking when he was missing for long stretches. I must resort to phrase that many likely think a near-daily basis: A phrase that many people may be thinking on a daily basis: “Unfortunately, I had to talk about Trump.”

It’s hard to know who this movie is for. Donald Trump is one of the most polarizing figure in US politics and neither side of deep political chasm will be satisfied with this film. That isn’t to say it is a fence-sitting centrist take. Based on the second half of the film, “The Apprentice” clearly has the stance that Trump is not a good person or someone to idolize, but it does humanize young 1970s Trump. He is not Evil incarnate who spawned from the aether, but someone molded by his surroundings. A blank slate whose only identifiable quality was wanting to be successful and famous.

Though humanizing is generally seen as shining a positive light, I doubt any of his diehard fans would appreciate this film’s approach of showing him as a weakling, pathetic, and needing others to help him. It is a fundamental clash with the persona they worship and adore. On the other hand, I don’t imagine anyone with genuine fear of the demonstrable harm another Trump presidency would cause, someone who feels anxiety every time they read his name, would want any sense of sympathetic depiction, even if it is in this more subtle, non-propagandistic way. Maybe after the election, when the threat is gone, a movie like this would be more digestible.

There are a lot of interesting elements within The Apprentice, mostly stemming from Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn, who should be nominated for Best Supporting Actor. But making a film about someone as controversial as Trump, one can’t help but wonder if there could’ve been more detail, a deeper dive. And the question lingers, why now, what does this add to the discourse?

7 out of 10 croissants