‘The Apprentice’ Review: Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong are the Perfect Toxic Duo in Ali Abbasi’s Story of Donald Trump’s Rise | Cannes

Iranian-Danish director Ali Abbasi is really going against the grain of auteurism. His last three films have all premiered in Cannes competitions; in 2019 Border won Un Certain Regard, 2021 had Holy Spider in Competition, and now this slot belongs to his first English-language-only film, The Apprentice. Between horror, magical realism, and the crime thriller genre, all of Abbasi’s films have been political, however different in theme and setting. When The Apprentice was first announced as a Donald Trump biopic starring Sebastian Stan, the choice of subject seemed a bit jarring to anyone that has seen Abbasi’s work. Especially after Holy Spider and his direct relation to Iranian reality, to imagine that same director taking a dig at Trump seemed difficult at first. But at the same time, with such a wide diversity of subject matters, genre, and aesthetical approaches that cannot be summarized as a single ‘author’s touch’, Abbasi proves himself just the right person to tackle Trump’s rise to prominence in the 70s and 80s.

The script by author Gabe Sherman—whose book on FOX News founder Roger Ailes became the Russell Crowe-starring miniseries The Loudest Voice—makes for a good three-act character study of Trump in his 30s and 40s. Sebastian Stan is made to resemble the ex-president to an uncanny degree, especially in the film’s latter parts where his body starts changing and his face gets fuller. This chameleonic quality to Stan’s performance only enhances the aura of fictional Trump (admitting this is, in fact, quite nauseating) who starts off as a mousy nobody, the butt of the joke in his family, and the one who collects rent from his father’s tenants, door-to-door. That is, until he meets the infamous political fixer Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong). His unmatched cockiness is something Donald desires immensely, so no wonder Cohn then becomes a blueprint for Trump’s future as a “killer” (as in, “winner”). 

The Apprentice does not care about deep psychologizations and all the better for it, since Abbasi allows enough room for sympathy and irony when giving us the slow process of character degradation. Depicting Donald as someone who goes from laughing stock to reverie is a risky move, since it evokes identification from the audience, and who (as a non-Trump supporter) would like to identify with him at all? Abbasi applied a similar logic to structuring Holy Spider by paying a lot of attention to a serial killer’s thought process and daily life, making the viewer an involuntary witness/participant in those doings. The Apprentice is also steeped in ambivalence, but by peppering the dialogue with one-liners like “You look like an orange!” or “You should run for office!,” the film makes it clear whose side it is on. 

However, the performances are all-round stellar and one cannot help but feel deep satisfaction when watching Trump’s tyrannical ascent—Stan’s facial acting becoming more twitchy and his lisp more assertive—as powered by Cohn’s catastrophic downfall. It’s a well-known fact that Jeremy Strong is a hardcore method devotee and even if his Cohn sometimes glitches to resemble Kendall Roy, the award-winning actor delivers a flawless performance. His sunbed tan, his upward gaze, the twitches, and the ever-deepening dark circles scream fragility, but his assertive “killer” attitude somehow hardens his whole body and transforms the whole character in an instant, as soon as he speaks. Last, but not least, Oscar-nominee Maria Bakalova does not disappoint as Trump’s first wife, Ivana. This role is perhaps where Bakalova can finally shine, since neither Borat or Bodies Bodies Bodies really gave her much to work with, but as Ivana, she gets to work through a nuanced, surprisingly likable character; even if this interpretation is too generous in comparison to real life, it’s good to see a film of this scope position the one female character as something more than collateral damage to a man’s downfall. The Apprentice is certainly a good watch and would work perfectly well for any streaming platform; even if its boxy ratio and beguiling retro TV-look suggest arthouse, its overall vibe is more “Sunday afternoon chill” than “Golden Palm.”

Grade: C+

This review is from the 2024 Cannes Film Festival where The Apprentice premiered in Competition. It is currently without U.S. distribution.