Unlike the all the drama and embellishment of political biopics - aka. Oliver Stone style filmmaking, Ali Abbasi's The Apprentice is just as brutal and succinct as the subject it is depicting in its lean, two-hour running time. At their early meeting the mentor Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong) tells the young, ambitious New York real estate heir Donald Trump (Sebastian Stan), the three rules to live by - ATTACK, ATTACK, ATTACK, DENY EVERYTHING, ADMIT NOTHING, AND NEVER ADMIT DEFEAT, ALWAYS WIN NO MATTER WHAT THE COST. Roy Cohn, the prosecutor of the Rosenberg Trial and later became a notorious lawyer/fixer of all the shady and powerful people in New York, shaped Trump's world view, whether Trump admits it or not - the pattern has been quite clear now for everyone to see.
Much of the criticism of the film comes from the dislike of its subject. Why do we need to see this piece of shit on screen and give him even more attention than he deserves? - which is understandable. But if anything, The Apprentice is the reaffirmation of our hatred of this callous, disgusting man. The film just gives more insights on how Trump has become what he has become - a homophobe, germaphobe, sexist, cruel and vindictive, cheap human trash. And Cohn and Trump deserved each other.
Sebastian Stan is outstanding in portraying Trump with his mannerisms and facial expressions, but not as a caricature. But it's Jeremy Strong's Roy Cohn who steals the show. A ruthless, closeted gay man with the McCarthy era patriotism, who later died of AIDS. His ghostly stares and monotonous delivery depict a truly ghoulish man. Maria Bakalova plays Ivana Trump, giving the Trump's first wife a little bit of humanity, who supposedly fell down the stairs and died, and buried in a Trump golf course. It shows the pattern of Trump's disgusting views on women over the years.
The Apprentice doesn't explain how we got here. As we are experiencing the second term of this human garbage in the White House. The thorough reexamination on the validity of The American Dream, manifest destiny, just when America was great, and to whom? should be in order.
No comments:
Post a Comment