On the Saturday October 19, 2024 episode of The Richard Crouse Show we’ll meet director Ali Abbasi. His film “The Apprentice,” which is now playing in theatres, is a controversial coming-of-age look at Donald Trump’s early years under the mentorship of lawyer Roy Cohn. It paints a picture of the future president of the United States as an ambitious, if slightly awkward guy, who came to believe that there are only two kinds of people in the world, “killers and losers.” Ali Abbasi joined me on the phone to discuss his six year journey to getting this film made and released and much more.
Then, Elijah Wood stops by. He began his career as a child actor, appearing in everything from “Back to the Future II” to “Internal Affairs” opposite Richard Gere. He became an international star after playing Frodo Baggins in the acclaimed “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. His extensive filmography now includes “Bookworm,” an intriguing film about a 12-year-old named Mildred whose life is turned upside down when her mother lands in hospital and estranged, American magician father, Strawn Wise, played by Elijah Wood, comes to look after her. Hoping to entertain the bookish tween, Strawn takes Mildred camping in the notoriously rugged New Zealand wilderness, and the pair embark on the ultimate test of family bonding — a quest to find the mythological beast known as the Canterbury Panther. It’s a lovely film and it was lovely to speak with Elijah Wood about it and his secret regarding “Lord of the Rings.”
Finally, we’ll meet Jenny Heijun Wills. She was born in Seoul, South Korea, raised in Southern Ontario, and currently lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She is the author of Older Sister. “Not Necessarily Related.: A Memoir.” As a self-described transnational and transracial adoptee, she has spent her life navigating the space between ethnicity and belonging, a subject she tackles in her new book “Everything and Nothing at All.”
Each week on the nationally syndicated Richard Crouse Show, Canada’s most recognized movie critic brings together some of the most interesting and opinionated people from the movies, television and music to put a fresh spin on news from the world of lifestyle and pop-culture. Tune into this show to hear in-depth interviews with actors and directors, to find out what’s going on behind the scenes of your favourite shows and movies and get a new take on current trends. Recent guests include Chris Pratt, Elvis Costello, Baz Luhrmann, Martin Freeman, David Cronenberg, Mayim Bialik, The Kids in the Hall and many more!
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I sit in with hosts Jim Richards and Deb Hutton on NewsTalk 1010 to play the game “Did Richard Crouse Like This?” This week we talk about the Pharrell Williams Lego music doc “Piece by Piece,” the crime thriller “Woman of the Hour” and the origin story “The Apprentice.”
SYNOPSIS: “The Apprentice,” the controversial coming-of-age look at Donald Trump’s early years under the mentorship of lawyer Roy Cohn, now playing in theatres, paints a picture of the future president of the United States as an ambitious, if slightly awkward guy, who came to believe that there are only two kinds of people in the world, “killers and losers.”
CAST: Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Strong, Maria Bakalova, Martin Donovan, Gabriel Sherman. Directed by Ali Abbasi.
REVIEW: In 1972 photographer Robert Frank was given carte blanch to follo and film The Rolling Stones on their American tour. The result was “Cocksucker Blues,” a film deemed unleasable by the band, but not because of the overwhelming amount of sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll on display. Rumor has it the band banned the film because Frank unblinkingly showed the tedium of life on the road and revealed the real lives of the band members.
It’s hardly the high glam life that would be expected from the “World’s Greatest Rock and Roll Band,” although these are the scenes that humanize the group and put a pinprick in the bubble of fame that surrounded the Stones in their glory days.
Director Jim Jarmusch said, “It makes you think that being a rock star is one of the last things you’d ever want to do.”
I mention all this because I think there is a correlation between “Cocksucker Blues” and “The Apprentice.” The Trump campaign unsuccessfully worked to suppress this film, and I would guess—and that’s all this is—they wanted it shelved not because of the harder edged portrait of Trump in the film’s second half, which falls in line with the candidate’s strongman image, but because of the softer, more humanist tone of the first hour.
When we first meet Trump (Sebastian Stan) he’s a desperate man, going door-to-door in his father’s buildings to collect rents from tenants who clearly loathe him, a lawsuit looms that could potentially bankrupt the Trump family and his brother Freddy is a drunk who is slowly losing his battle with the bottle.
Enter Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong), a lawyer Trump affectionately calls “evil incarnate.” The prosecutor in the espionage trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and chief counsel to Senator Joseph McCarthy’s investigations of suspected communists, he had a fearsome take-no-prisoners reputation. The closeted lawyer took Trump under his wing, greasing the wheels for him socially and professionally in 1970s New York City.
“You’re the client,” says Cohn, “but you work for me. You do what I say, when I say.”
The ambitious Trump begins as a lump of clay but is soon molded into an effigy of Roy Cohn, merciless in business and in life.
“The Apprentice” is several things. It’s the making of a monster. It’s a story of unchecked ambition. It’s a cautionary tale. It’s a period piece of New York City in the go-go 1980s.
Mostly though, it’s an entertaining character study of one of the world’s most famous people that comes with the good, the bad and the ugly.
The good? Stan, who (mostly) avoids doing an “SNL” style Trump caricature. In the last hour, when he has absorbed Cohn’s lessons and the student has surpassed the master, he’s recognizably Trump.
Before that, he is more fully rounded as a character. There are flashes of compassion when he interacts with Freddy, frustration at being under his father’s thumb and vulnerability. When he becomes the blustery Trump we’re more familiar with, it becomes less interesting, but still avoids imitation.
As Cohn, Strong is serpentine, to the point of predatorially flicking his tongue. Eyelids at half mast, he exudes maximum confidence in his ability to control every situation. When the tide turns for him, Strong manages to create empathy for a character who never had any in real life. When he complains to Trump that “he’s lost the last trace of decency you ever had,” the words hit hard.
The bad? While Maria Bakalova, who plays Trump’s first wife Ivana, is credible in the role, it feels a bit cheeky to cast her, given her headlining encounter with Trump associate Rudy Giuliani in “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm.”
The ugly? The casual venality on display. It’s the kind that powerful people use to intimidate and control the people in their lives, and it is gruesome. It’s an ugly glimpse into the halls of power where cold-blooded mercenaries like Cohn will do anything to win.
There’s also a graphic and cruel scene of sexual assault, unflinchingly captured by director Ali Abbasi’s camera.
Donald Trump dismisses “The Apprentice” as “pure fiction” and for sure it isn’t the whole truth and nothing but the truth. An opening title card acknowledges that, announcing that “some events have been fictionalized for dramatic effect,” but it does capture the tenor of the times and the dynamic between Trump and Cohn. It’s an origin story, and while you may not learn anything new, it paints a potent picture of pure ambition run amok.
On the Saturday October 19, 2024 episode of The Richard Crouse Show we’ll meet director Ali Abbasi. His film “The Apprentice,” which is now playing in theatres, is a controversial coming-of-age look at Donald Trump’s early years under the mentorship of lawyer Roy Cohn. It paints a picture of the future president of the United States as an ambitious, if slightly awkward guy, who came to believe that there are only two kinds of people in the world, “killers and losers.” Ali Abbasi joined me on the phone to discuss his six year journey to getting this film made and released and much more.
