The Apprentice verdict: Trump biopic receives lukewarm reviews from Cannes ... trends now
The Donald Trump biopic The Apprentice has received largely lukewarm reviews from critics following its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on Monday.
The film, directed by Ali Abbassi and written by Gabriel Sherman, follows Trump during his career as a real estate baron in the 1970s and 80s.
Sebastian Stan stars as the businessman turned politician while Jeremy Strong portrays his lawyer Roy Cohn and Maria Bakalova plays Trump's ex-wife Ivana.
The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw gave the film two stars, feeling it offered a 'cartoon version' of Trump's early years.
He wrote: 'The monstrosity here is almost sentimental, a cartoon Xeroxed from many other satirical Trump takes and knowing prophetic echoes of his political future.
The Donald Trump biopic The Apprentice has received largely lukewarm reviews from critics following its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on Monday
The film, directed by Ali Abbassi and written by Gabriel Sherman, follows Trump during his career as a real estate baron in the 1970s and 80s
'It's basically a far less original picture, its ambience borrowed from Scorsese and Coppola – with Donald's deadbeat elder brother Fred even getting a 'Fredo' scene where he gets embarrassingly, tearfully drunk at a big event, like the loser he is.
'And like so many film-makers these days, Abbasi will keep swooning over the picturesque sleaze of 70s New York.'
The Telegraph's Robbie Collin was more positive, giving the film three stars, but criticised the picture for not offering viewers anything they won't already know about Trump.
He wrote: 'The main problem with Ali Abbasi's The Apptrentice is that the film is a character study with very little character to study.
'But the particular nature of its subject's psychology renders the drama – how to put this tactfully? – rather short on depth and twists.
'Spoiler alert: the young Donald Trump was a cripplingly insecure and status-conscious wannabe whose big life goals amounted to getting rich, getting laid and worming his way into his city's billionaire social elite.'
IndieWire gave The Apprentice a similar verdict, arguing it offers viewers no new informatrion about its subject. However the publication did praise Sebastian Stan for his performance.
They wrote: 'The trouble is that Abbasi is still possessed with a morbid curiosity about his subject that most Americans have lost the ability to muster after spending eight years studying a Times Square caricature of a person more closely than any painting in the Louvre.
Sebastian Stan stars as the businessman turned politician (right) while Jeremy Strong portrays his lawyer Roy Cohn and Maria Bakalova plays Trump's ex-wife Ivana (left)
Film critics were united in praise of Sebastian Stan's performance as Trump
'If we can't be bothered to care about the first criminal trial of a former U.S. president (which hinges upon cover-up payments to a porn star on the eve of a national election!), there's nothing The Apprentice can do to arouse
