From Ryan Cordaro

I’ve mentioned this while writing the post about 2073, a documentary-thriller that’s coming out later this year about how we’re already doomed. I don’t think I’m the only one thinking that I don’t like to think this way. It does feel like it’s heading down a dark path either way, though. I like to stay on the positive side, and for the most part, that’s movies in general. So, seeing this movie make headlines for the past few months has been a little entertaining to see. I get into that in the next paragraph, but The Apprentice can be a big wildcard not just for the awards race but for the election in general.

This movie will feel like a minefield, but there is an actual focus to The Apprentice and isn’t just moving through Trump’s life. In 1970s New York, a young Donald Trump who’s eager to make his name as a hungry second son of a wealthy family in 1970s New York. He comes under the spell of Roy Cohn, the cutthroat attorney who would help create the Donald Trump we know today. Cohn sees in Trump the perfect protégé, someone with raw ambition, a hunger for success, and a willingness to do whatever it takes to win. Like most things with the Trump name, The Apprentice has been hit with multiple controversies. After its premiere at Cannes this past May, Dan Snyder, one of the producers of the film, sought to block the release after seeing the final cut, disappointed that the movie doesn’t paint Trump in a positive light. After a cease and desist letter from the Trump campaign was sent to Ali Abbasi, the director of the film, Abbasi offered to screen The Apprentice for Trump, thinking it’d be a movie that “he wouldn’t dislike.” Since then, Trump and his team have apparently done nothing and the film will be released, especially since this trailer has also been released.

The Apprentice stars Sebastian Stan (Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the upcoming A Different Man), Jeremy Strong (Succession, Armageddon Time), Maria Bakalova (Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, the upcoming Creature Commandos), Martin Donovan (Weeds, Tenet), Catherine McNally (Anne with an E, Schitt’s Creek), Charlie Carrick (Alice, Darling, Deep Water), Mark Rendall (30 Days of Night, Versailles), and Joe Pingue (Station 11, The Book of Eli).

Briarcliff Entertainment will release The Apprentice in theaters on October 11th, 2024.

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