Movie review
October 9, 2024 · 122 min · R
Woke Score
Lower is better
Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for The Apprentice.
Woke representation / casting
Principals are white actors playing white historical figures from 1970s-80s NYC power circles. Period-accurate. No prominent identity-driven casting or DEI emphasis visible to audiences. Supporting roles have minimal racial diversity consistent with setting. Roy Cohn's gay identity is biographical. Immigrant backgrounds of some actors fit character logic.
Woke political dialogue
No modern activist language, identity lectures, or DEI jargon. Dialogue centers on period-appropriate power tactics, ambition, and real-estate/political maneuvering drawn from reported history.
Identity-driven story themes
Core narrative is about ambition, toxic mentorship, and moral compromise. Cohn's closeted homosexuality is portrayed as part of his tragic, self-hating persona per writer interviews, not celebratory or modern queer activism. No race/gender identity politics or representation-first arcs.
Western institutional / cultural critique
Review
The Apprentice is a 2024 biographical drama depicting young Donald Trump's rise in 1970s and 1980s New York real estate under the mentorship of Roy Cohn, the ruthless attorney who taught him aggressive tactics of attack, denial, and claiming victory. The film shows Trump's business deals, family tensions, personal excesses, and moral compromises that shaped his later persona. It includes a graphic scene of alleged sexual assault drawn from a public deposition record. The narrative critiques power, greed, and corruptible systems through a classical left-leaning lens on ambition rather than modern identity politics or representation themes.
Film critiques corruptible legal, tax, media, and political systems that reward ruthless operators. Portrays greed, amorality, and "winners vs losers" worldview in 70s-80s capitalism. Classical left/liberal skepticism of power and elite maneuvering rather than modern woke framing (no anti-whiteness, no colonial guilt, no toxic masculinity as identity concept, no anti-patriarchy lectures). Some anti-conservative tilt via Trump/Cohn focus.
Woke character or canon changes
Not relevant. Dramatization of real historical figures and events. Disputes exist over accuracy of specific scenes (e.g., rape depiction), but these are factual/biographical disagreements, not ideological identity reinterpretations or DEI-driven alterations.
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
Significant backlash from Trump, campaign, and conservative audiences treating the film as a left-wing partisan attack and defamatory election-season hit job. Complaints center on it being politically motivated character assassination timed for 2024 vote. Not heavily framed around "woke/DEI/identity politics" specifically (film lacks strong representation emphasis), but clearly anti-left political criticism of Hollywood producing unflattering conservative figure portrayals.
Creator track record context
Sherman has built career on critical examinations of conservative media and Trump-era figures (Ailes book). Abbasi's prior work (*Holy Spider*) aggressively critiques religious patriarchy and authoritarian structures in Iran, with feminist-adjacent themes around violence against women. Bekerman has publicly supported diverse storytelling and criticized retreats from DEI. Other producers show little to no activist patterns. Overall left-leaning critical stance toward conservative power without heavy identity/DEI focus.
Production
