The Apprentice: Nobody's born knowing how to be merciless (not even Trump)
Decade of the 1980s. During those 10 years, Donald Trump went from being an attempted businessman, living in his father's lap, to one of the biggest billionaires in the United States of America. How did he do it? Well, the whole process behind Donald John Trump, we see it majestically, I might add, in the almost 2 hours and a bit of running time in The Apprentice.... A film which shows how the lust for power and status is an old American vice and that almost nobody escapes (people with power and money, clearly) do not escape this ‘habit’.
However, I want to pause to explain why the film is called Th Apprentice (....). Evidently, it is a nod from the products to the scriptwriter to that famous cable TV show where Trump used to be a star. But unlike that reality show, what we see in the feature film is properly substantiated and draws on multiple sources. The film itself has not escaped the polemics and threats of the US President himself...
We are unknowingly witnessing the metamorphosis of a 30-something guy, obsessed with fame, respect and money at any cost, who will spare nothing to get it. A certain kind of wife, a certain philosophy of life. Morality as a second or third rate issue, and always repeating slogans. Like for example: ‘Never admit you are wrong. Always deny failure. Deny it, even if it costs you your life!’. Without a doubt, a cult film for the rat children who try to sell courses on networks about trading and ‘financial security’.
The film's tone is very similar in tone to Scorsese's Wolf of The Wall Street.... With much less humour and more focused on the psychology of the character developed wonderfully by Sebastian Stan. Not for nothing has he been nominated for an Academy Award for his splendid performance in this film. But if I have to single out one character, and therefore one actor, I'd go for the supporting role played by Jeremy Strong. Curiously, he plays in the film a famous conservative American lawyer accused of being homosexual and who was with Donald Trump at the beginning of it all, as a mentor...
Roy Cohn, that was the name of the person who taught the apprentice to be who he is today... Ruthless, cruel, merciless, ambitious, ferocious, voracious, sick with power and respect for all, at all times. Seriously, this film is one of those gems that, at the peak of the newly elected US President's popularity, has seen an unfair and undeserved contrast of acceptance. Moreover, visually it is a beauty. The texture of the image we see of this film has been ‘deteriorated’ at will to make it look like the 80s. Details, script, satire and a look at how Donald became Trump.