The story of how a young Donald Trump started his real-estate business in 1970s and ’80s New York with the helping hand of infamous lawyer Roy M. Cohn.
I didn’t want to watch this movie at all until I read this interview with Sebastian Stan.
This quote in particular:
“It’s been revealing to see how hesitant people are,” Stan says. “I’ve had people come up to me at parties, saying it’s their favorite film of the year, but when it comes to supporting it publicly, there’s silence. That part of it has been tough.”
Something about his earnestness about the project really spoke to me, so the other day, when Mickey asked me what the next movie I needed to watch for my Independent Spirit Awards voting, I said, “I want to watch the Trump movie.”
I didn’t expect it to end up in my top ten of the year.
I went in blind, with nothing but the interview and the knowledge that this movie also starred Jeremy Strong (most well known for playing my boy Kendall Roy on Succession).
This movie was great. It told a compelling story of someone I thought I had seen more than enough about in the past couple of decades. And I was glued to the screen the entire time.
Sebastian Stan is my pick for Best Actor at the Oscars this year. For this role. I think he’ll get nominated for A Different Man instead, though. He’s deserving of that, too. In my perfect Oscar world, he’d be a double nominee this year.
Look, I know we’ve seen so many different portrayals of Trump. Most of them comedic, so he comes off as a caricature, which, I mean, he kind of is. Sebastian Stan, on the other hand, disappears into this role. The mannerisms, the way his mouth moves when he talks. The word emphasis. The way he walks. The way he eats.
The way he has no original thoughts of his own.
Which is basically the heart of this whole film.
Trump has no original thoughts of his own. Most of them originated from the brain of Roy Cohn, a closeted homosexual lawyer who took Trump under his wing in the late 70s.
Now, don’t go into this movie expecting it to be, like, a skewering gotcha of this ridiculous orange form that is about to become our president. It’s presented quite matter-of-factly.
In fact, the writer of The Apprentice , Gabriel Sherman, is a journalist, having written for Vanity Fair, New York magazine, and contributing to NBC News and MSNBC.
So, he did his research.
I found this tidbit on IMDB:
When asked whether the film was truly factual, screenwriter Gabriel Sherman – who is also a journalist – answered : “What I would say is that the film is rigorously researched. I did as much research and reporting to write this screenplay as I have done for any journalism I’ve done. That said, it is a work of art. It’s not a documentary. It’s not journalism. It’s based on real events and every major turning point in the movie is documented by real events.”
Despite this, Donald Trump still railed against the movie, calling it a “politically disgusting hatchet job” made by “human scum.”
To me, it doesn’t feel like he’d react like that if there wasn’t a healthy dose of truth in the movie.
Like I said, I can’t believe how much I enjoyed this movie.
Not only was Sebastian Stan phenomenal, but Jeremy Strong blew me away. And then, by the time Ivana showed up in Donald’s life, Maria Bakalova showed up in mine. She had a smaller role but still made it iconic.
And the styling of this movie was impeccable. The music choice, the cinematography, and, most impressively, the hair and makeup, and costuming nailed this time period so hard. I loved a movie that can properly communicate time changes by showing instead of telling.
It is important for me to say that while I learned a lot about Trump’s early days and even saw him in a bit of a different light, it didn’t soften me to him anymore. Not one bit. This movie didn’t give me a single ounce of sympathy for this human shape.
In fact, It made me dislike him more – just for additional and varied reasons.
This was a great movie and I really want more people to see it so we can talk all about it.
Come back here when you’re done, okay?
