Donald Trump, now once again ensconced in the White House, was the host of The Apprentice for 14 seasons, but this film of the same name – directed by the Iranian-Danish filmmaker Ali Abbasi – reveals the young Trump undertaking his very own real-life apprenticeship under the guidance of cutthroat lawyer Roy Cohn, mesmerisingly portrayed here by Jeremy Strong.
The brilliant Sebastian Stan, who plays Trump, cleverly dodges the temptation of making him into a caricature; instead we see a callow, alarmingly impressionable young man from a wealthy but difficult background falling under the influence of the almost demonic Cohn, who moulds him in his own image, against the glittering but deeply sleazy background of New York in the 1970s and 80s, just before the advent of the Aids epidemic.
