Behold – the moment we all anticipated has finally happened: the Hollywood biopic industrial complex has finally churned out one about Donald Trump. A quirky one. One that, from a distance, seems to have many merits on paper. Starring a Marvel star who is in the midst of reinventing himself as a serious character actor, Sebastian Stan (a name who generates a lot of buzz and interest at home due to his Romanian origins). A selection in the Competition of Cannes, which means the right to fashion itself as “more than just another biopic.” A non-American filmmaker with many awards under his belt in the European circuit, in the person of Danish-Iranian director Ali Abbasi. Most importantly: an “incendiary” subject, in a year of global electoral frenzy, promising to deliver equal amounts of sordidness, amusement, excess, and intrigue. But except for the first card in this hand, The Apprentice fails across the board – and the only reason one might find it worth watching is Stan’s performance, who manages to capture the American almost-dictator down to his smallest gestures and tics (the grin, the stutter, the twitching of his eyebrows, the almost bird-like turns of his head, the pursing of the lips, etc.).

Flavia Dima

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Film critic & journalist. Collaborates with local and international outlets, programs a short film festival - BIEFF, does occasional moderating gigs and is working on a PhD thesis about home movies. At Films in Frame, she writes the monthly editorial - The State of Cinema and is the magazine's main festival reporter.

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