The Controversial Trump-biopic, The Apprentice receives standing ovation at Cannes

The eyes of film fans across the world find themselves settled on South France this week for the 2024 Cannes Film Festival and the anticipated and prestigious premieres that come along with it. Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis” may have been the hot ticket, but Iranian-Danish Ali Abbasi’s new film “The Apprentice” has caused quite a stir after its recent Cannes premiere.

The film is the Donald Trump biopic, starring Sebastian Stan as the former and potentially next President of the US, depicting his rise to power in the business world and his working relationship with Roy Cohn (Succession’s Jeremy Strong), chief counsel to Joseph McCarthy during the 1950s Senate investigations.

 

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It premiered to an immediately divisive reception (it probably won’t be up for the illustrious Palme d’Or despite being in competition), despite an 8-minute standing ovation, receiving a 52 on Metacritic, with 2 positive and 7 mixed reviews, and a 67% on Rotten Tomatoes. After his recent successes in “Fresh” and “A Different Man,” Sebastian Stan has been praised for his portrayal, straying close to, without ever verging on, the SNL parody of the figure we have become all too familiar with over the recent years.

Strong has also been praised, but the film has been criticized for its rather shallow portrayal of Trump’s ascension, with Peter Bradshaw of the Guardian describing it as “worryingly” moving “us back to the old Donald, the joke Donald” and David Ehrlich of IndiWire suggesting it “isn’t as painful to watch as the future that it portends has been to endure, but it’s every bit as banal and unnecessary.” The film has also been panned for being no more than a clip show of Trump’s most iconic incidents, Tim Grierson of Screen International writing that it “ends up dramatically flat.”

It is sure to divide audiences across the world. It will most likely be released to the public in Fall 2024 (if it hopes to launch an awards campaign, which, given the reception, seems unlikely), right in time for the US election this coming November.