FANTASTIC FEST: ‘The Apprentice’ (2024) Exposes American Greed

Like its central subject, Donald Trump, The Apprentice is a highly controversial film. One of its financiers, billionaire Dan Snyder, has come out fiercely against the film, feeling duped into donating money into a film he thought would be an endorsement of the former President of the United States. Others have raised concerns over a perceived attempt to humanize the man. Whether by circumstance or intent, The Apprentice has its finger firmly on the pulse. Director Ali Abbasi (Holy Spider, Border) seizes this opportunity. The Apprentice is an aspiring crook epic, aiming to lay bare the moral rot that comes with capitalism. More often than not, it hits its target dead center.

The audience first meets Donald Trump (Sebastian Stan) as a sheepish young man. As he sits yammering on to his date about the rich and powerful clientele that frequents the club they’re in, Sebastian Stan communicates a lust for power behind young Donald’s eyes. The only person who can satiate this desire might be attorney Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong). As Cohn, Jeremy Strong goes above and beyond. Strong plays him as a morally bankrupt figure, sure, but one whose gift of cheating his way to the top feels almost magnetic.

For a while, The Apprentice resembles something of a white-collar Scarface. Ali Abbasi makes the indulgent huckster lifestyle look almost appealing. The rise to power arc is tried-and-true in crime fiction, and this fact-based crime tale of sorts feel intoxicating until it isn’t. Sebastian Stan will be recognized in 2024 as an acting force to be reckoned with. Cinematographer Kasper Tuxen transitions the look of The Apprentice from the gritty fuzz of ’70s film grain to a glossy scan-line heavy evocation of the ’80s.

Parallel to that aesthetic switch, Stan piece by piece takes his Trump from a meek kid seeking approval to a narcissistic husk. Furthermore, Stan never resorts to mere impression, making his take on one of the most controversial figures in American history a vividly realized character whose drive to “win” comes from a deep resentment towards a world that he feels owes him. In his quest for glory, he leaves everyone else in the dust.

Screenwriter Gabriel Sherman struggles when it comes to portraying this aspect in terms of  Donald Trump’s family. The relationship between Donald and his father (Martin Donovan) leans into cliche too hard to land. Donald’s snubbing of his older brother Fred (Charlie Carrick) fares a little better due to Carrick’s realistic portrayal of addiction. Sadly, Maria Bakalova‘s committed turn as Trump’s first wife Ivana is wasted on a part that reduces her to little more than a victim.

The meat of The Apprentice, however, is the relationship between Trump and Roy Cohn. It’s easy, and essentially correct, to read Donald’s attachment to Roy Cohn as shaking hands with the Devil. What The Apprentice emphasizes is that despite Roy Cohn’s shameless embrace of greed, what he spawns by encouraging it in the worst person possible is a complete monster. The Apprentice is interested in Donald Trump the man, sure, but it’s more fascinated by Donald Trump as the natural endpoint to capitalism.

As he’s shown in Holy Spider, Ali Abbasi has the makings of an essential political filmmaker. Rather than the detached, smug satire prevalent in most of-the-moment political art, Abbasi does not want you to look away from the ugliness of what American greed creates. He wants to rub your nose in it. The Apprentice portrays a series of highly disturbing acts allegedly committed by Donald Trump- verbally or physically- that are extremely difficult to stomach. Yet, it’s entirely necessary.

Much like Jeremy Strong’s Roy Cohn towards the end of the film, dying and looking at the result of what he’s encouraged, The Apprentice leaves the audience feeling like it’s too late to turn back. The damage is already done. Whether or not that’s true, it makes for terrifically bleak filmmaking. The Apprentice is a tremendously pointed fable about the corrupting nature of power and the capitalistic framework that encourages it. Strip the context away, look at this as a purely fictional story, and it’s still simply exquisite filmmaking. That The Apprentice is a relevant film for the moment elevates it to new heights.

The Apprentice screened as part of Fantastic Fest 2024 and releases on October 11, 2024.