When this lenient and indulgent TV movie-style treatment of Donald Trump’s early adventures in 70s landlordism premiered at Cannes earlier this year, I thought he wouldn’t mind – it does, after all, pull so many punches. But Trump is now proving his decreasing political nous and indeed decreasing grasp of reality with a rant on the subject; the whole thing might well go on a special Times Square billboard. But in whetting audience’s appetite for the film, he might once again in his career be making promises he can’t keep.
The Apprentice is about his relationship with dark legal sorcerer and Nixon intimate Roy Cohn, the bully who taught him to lie to others and himself. Director Ali Abbasi has given us fascinating monsters in the past with Holy Spider and Border but the monstrosity here is almost sentimental, a cartoon Xeroxed from many other satirical Trump takes and knowing prophetic echoes of his political future. It’s basically a far less original picture, its ambience borrowed from Scorsese and Coppola – with Donald’s deadbeat elder brother Fred even getting a “Fredo” scene where he gets embarrassingly, tearfully drunk at a big event, like the loser he is. And like so many film-makers these days, Abbasi will keep swooning over the picturesque sleaze of 70s New York.
