Critics reviews

Unexpectedly nuanced... Both actors, especially Mr. Strong, are gripping in a coming-of-age story that portrays the younger Trump somewhat sympathetically.

The Apprentice is a hodgepodge of scenes from the life of Trump and Cohn with little emotional fluidity... [and it] gets dumber as it goes along. It doesn’t help that Cohn is sidelined as he was in real life. Strong is the film’s (sorry) strongest asset, and whenever he’s not onscreen the whole thing loses much of its energy.

The most disturbing aspect of The Apprentice is how familiar this all is by now and how numb we are to its depravity. What The Apprentice does have to offer is a masterful slate of performances that far exceed the usual mimicry of many buzzy Hollywood biopics.

The worst kinds of movies are the ones that leave no impression at all – like The Apprentice... Maybe we’ve had enough mocking Trump content by sketch comedians and TikTok impressionists, but a weirdly grounded drama like The Apprentice also feels tonally off and annoyingly safe in the context of Trump’s ongoing menace.

[The Apprentice] is well acted by Strong, Maria Bakalova as Ivana Trump, and an increasingly makeup-buried Sebastian Stan as Trump himself, depicted from the start as a sack of shit that gets progressively shittier. It’s not dismissible, but it’s hardly the stuff of revelation, either.

If [The Apprentice] isn’t a great movie, it’s at least a fascinating and thoughtful one, an even-handed film that doesn’t need to resort to extremes to paint an accurate picture of what America and the world are up against right now, in terms of one particular past and possibly future president.

People of all political stripes and prejudices should give The Apprentice a try, for it is nothing short of extraordinary. The performances are stellar, the pacing both restrained and engaging, the realization of Cohn and Trump’s world is top-notch, and the dynamic between the two is as captivating as any.

[The Apprentice] is an unflattering portrait with a surprising, well-judged turn from Sebastian Stan at its centre... [who] wisely eschews the SNL-level impressions... [It] is a fairly straightforward biopic for a fairly uninteresting subject – a linear, tragically upward trajectory of inflated egos and wallets.

[The Apprentice is] a movie that wants you to know how Trump became the man he is today, and how another infamous participant in our nation’s descents into moral free-fall activated something deep within this striver from Queens.

[The Apprentice] is either an inspiring Secret of My Success tale of bromance, entrepreneurship and reinvention or a gruesome origin story for a capitalist goblin who sheds his few human qualities in pursuit of the mighty dollar, depending on who’s watching. A cinematic Rorschach test, it’s more likely to reaffirm your views on the man than challenge them.

The task before The Apprentice... is a formidable one, and it’s not a task to which director Ali Abbasi and screenwriter Gabriel Sherman prove remotely equal... It’s the kind of charismatic antihero’s journey that might fly in a Scorsese film — arguably the ultimate Trump film is The Wolf of Wall Street — but Abassi and Sherman’s take on the material is largely dutiful.

The Apprentice is destined to be berated by many as too flattering or too unflattering, but it's a cleverly composed snapshot of its subject at a specific time. Ultimately, it doesn't say anything we haven't heard, and it doesn't plumb the psychological depths.