One cease-and-desist letter and many alleged death threats later, Ali Abbasi’s Donald Trump biopic The Apprentice finally hits U.S. theaters on October 11, following its world premiere at the 77th Cannes Film Festival and a screening at the 51st Telluride Film Festival. For months, the film has sparked political controversy for its portrayal of how the former 45th president of the United States became the man he is today. Now, on the eve of Election Day, which will pit the tycoon against Democratic Party nominee and current 49th Vice President of the United States Kamala Harris, The Apprentice is in the hands of American voters.

• An American “Horror Story”
• Playing Mentor and Apprentice
• Big City Style
• Election Meddling

An American “Horror Story”

The Apprentice is a Frankenstein-like tale of the relationship between infamous American lawyer and prosecutor Roy Cohn (played by a remarkable Jeremy Strong) and a young, impressionable Donald Trump (Sebastian Stan). Written by American journalist Gabriel Sherman and directed by Iranian-Danish filmmaker Ali Abbasi, the film traces Trump’s climb to power in the 1970s and 1980s under Cohn’s mentorship. Trump’s pursuit of Ivana Trump (Maria Balakova) is also crucial to the story, as is Trump’s increasingly competitive relationship with his father (Martin Donovan). Eventually, the student outgrows the teacher. When Cohn succumbs to AIDS, Trump claims all of his success as his own, including Cohn’s three “rules of winning”: rule 1. Attack. Attack. Attack; rule 2. Admit nothing. Deny everything; rule 3. Claim victory and never admit defeat.

As a biopic, The Apprentice strikes a calculated balance: comedic without ever veering into full-blown satire; tragic without ever pitying itself. During a Q&A session at the 51st Telluride Film Festival, Abbasi, Strong and Stan commented on the story’s perversion of the American Dream into a horror story – a sickeningly glamorous, uniquely American nightmare.

Playing Mentor and Apprentice

Sebastian Stan had a lot to say about his own experience with the American Dream during the Q&A session following The Apprentice. Born in Romania, Stan grew up in Vienna until the age of 12, when his mother married an American man who moved the family to New York City. Desperate to fit in, Stan quickly adopted the mannerisms and slang of native New Yorkers. This talent for mimicry proved instrumental in Stan’s portrayal of one of the most impersonated living figures. After Stan signed on to the project in 2022, he began listening to recordings of Trump’s voice constantly. Ultimately, he managed to avoid impersonation in favor of true immersion. Stan’s Trump is fully human.

Critics have widely praised Jeremy Strong’s portrayal of Roy Cohn for embodying all the hypocrisies and commitments of the tyrant. The real Roy Cohn presided over the era of McCarthyism in the United States, famously using the blackmail of homosexuality to prosecute all of his political rivals as Communists, even though Cohn himself was gay, though he always denied it. Roy Cohn provided legal support and personal guidance to the young Donald Trump, and is also remembered for his work on Ronald Reagan’s presidential campaign. He is considered one of the most influential figures in modern American history.

Some of the controversy surrounding The Apprentice has included arguments that the film humanizes these two men too much. Strong shared his thoughts on this criticism during an interview on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Big City Style

Visually, The Apprentice strives to be a period piece of the 1970s and 1980s, using a grainy film look and impressive cuts of archival footage to depict Trump’s New York City at the time. Credit for this chic, frenetic style goes to editor Olivia Neergaard-Holm, who edited The Apprentice (along with Olivier Bugge Coutté) and Abbasi’s previous films Shelley (2016), Border (2018), and Holy Spider (2022). Neergaard-Holm also co-wrote and edited Sebastian Schipper‘s Victoria, famous for its fast pacing and coordinated chaos.

The musical cues in The Apprentice are precise, blending original pieces by Martin Dirkov with an infectious pop soundtrack, including Baccara and New Order. The result is a smart pace and an ironic sense of triumph as the young Donald Trump overtakes his feared mentor.

Election Meddling

Abbasi uses Cohn’s perverted patriotism to lay the groundwork for Trump’s sly presidential ambitions later in the film. Although The Apprentice is firmly set in the 1970s and 1980s, the Trump campaign team has called the film election meddling and quickly threatened legal action after the film’s Cannes premiere.

This ‘film’ is pure malicious defamation, should not see the light of day, and doesn’t even deserve a place in the straight-to-DVD section of a bargain bin at a soon-to-be-closed discount movie store, it belongs in a dumpster fire.

_{Steven Cheung, Director of Communications for the Trump Campaign}

This commitment to blocking the marketing and distribution of The Apprentice has resulted in a protracted delivery to American audiences. Even before the film’s release, problems arose when Daniel Snyder watched a cut of the film in February. Snyder, a billionaire and close friend and political supporter of Trump, had financed the film, expecting a positive portrayal of Trump. After watching The Apprentice, Snyder backed out and lawyers for his production company, Kinematics, tried to block the film’s release.

Now, thanks to Briarcliff Entertainment’s involvement, The Apprentice is playing in theaters across the United States and has been made available on streaming platforms. With Tuesday, November 5th marking an important and potentially historic Election Day in the United States, The Apprentice is a bold, controversial biopic for the season, as befits its subject matter.