It’s difficult to avoid Donald Trump, not even in Cannes.
An eight-minute standing ovation was given to “The Apprentice,” which tells the tale of the 45th and maybe 47th president’s early years as a real estate developer. Since it’s likely that the audience at the film festival won’t be very patriotic, “The Apprentice” does a good job of presenting a harsh picture of Trump’s relationship with Roy Cohn, the McCarthyite lawyer and fixer who showed interest in “the Donald” before he became well-known.
Sebastian Stan (“The Falcon and the Winter Soldier”) plays Trump, Maria Bakalova (“Borat 2”) represents Ivana Trump, the first wife of the thrice-married president, and Jeremy Strong (“Succession”) plays Cohn. The film is directed by Iranian-Danish director Ali Abbasi, who previously made the films “Border” and “Holy Spider.” Gabriel Sherman, a journalist who covered the Trump White House and Fox News and its founder Roger Ailes, wrote the script for the film. The show’s name is a reference to the NBC series that helped restore Trump’s public image and career following a string of financial failures and bankruptcies.
Abassi hopped up and down, waiving to the rafters, so excited was he by the reception that his tuxedo shirt untucked from his pants. The director declared, “There is no nice metaphorical way to deal with fascism.” “Movies need to become more timely. It’s time to resume making political films.
Without a doubt, the film is explosive. It shows Trump as a driven individual who succumbs to Cohn’s influence while he battles the Justice Department’s racial discrimination lawsuit on how his family’s real estate company handles Black applicants for its apartment building. This should enrage Trump and his followers in many ways. In order for Trump Tower to go as planned, he is shown raping Ivana, consuming amphetamines to reduce weight (then getting a tummy pull with a hair implant chaser), and striking deals with criminals. In addition, he makes a poor wager in a casino in Jersey City and neglects to pay his bills—so much for “The Art of the Deal.” There’s also a sequence that could not work well in the Mar-a-Lago screening room in which Cohn gives Trump a suggestive squeeze under the table.
Strong was not there while Bakalova, Abbasi, and Stan walked the red carpet. He was unable to abandon his Broadway performance of “Enemy of the People,” which is now nominated for a Tony Award, in order to attend Cannes. He did, however, appear in a picture taken without a shirt on Abbasi’s phone during the standing ovation.
The premiere of “The Apprentice” coincides with Trump’s re-entry into the presidential race, as polls indicate he leads Vice President Biden in most swing states. The movie is regarded as one of the hottest properties up for grabs and is seeking for a domestic distribution contract.
