This long simmering project has been in the works for years, but comes up on the big screen less a month to election day. This is a searing chronology showing Donald J. Trump’s ascension in business through his relationship, in particular, with Roy Cohn and details his first marriage to Ivana. There are two shocking scenes in this film. It’s the graphic spousal rape by Trump of Ivana during a blistering argument.The other scene we didn’t expect to see shows in bloody detail, double cosmetic surgeries of liposuction and hair restoration. Both portray Trump’s unquenchable vanity to look his narcissistic best.
The film follows Donald J. Trump’s his endless drive to become the real estate power house in New York to impress his Dad. Ali Abassi directs Sebastian Stan (A Different Man, Marvel’s Winter Soldier) playing the role, not as a comic impersonation (as seen nightly on multiple TV talk shows), but as a peek inside Trump’s mind with his drive to win at all costs. That included power, money and women. Stan’s make-up, hair, mouth shape, lisp, posture and lumbering walk were carefully calculated to let Stan disappear into the character.
The Iranian Danish Abbasi was on his way to Telluride for the premiere of his film Border, but almost didn’t make it when President Trump froze foreign travel in 2018. Fortunately, he made it, but there was more interest in Abbasi doing a Trump biopic, than in his new film. He rejected several scripts based on Trump until he saw what New York Magazine writer Gabriel Sherman (Roger Ailes’ biographer) came up with in a script focusing on Roy Cohn’s influence in the 1970’s and 80’s. The well-connected New York lawyer had a reputation second to none and this film shows how much Trump followed his lead. The way Cohn schools Trump and others is chilling.
Roy Cohn was reviled and hated as Joe McCarthy’s Wunderkid advisor during the Commie Witch Hunt Congressional hearings of the 1950’s. His decisive, denigrating, brash personality immediately resonated with the young Trump who immediately ingratiated himself by following Cohn’s essential rules: 1. Attack, attack, attack. 2. Admit nothing, deny everything. 3. No matter what, claim victory and never admit defeat. Trump learned well from Cohn how to build his real estate business from the bottom up. But their relationship changed when Donald didn’t think he needed Cohn anymore, and their relationship took on a sad turn when Cohn contracted AIDS. He died at 56, in the 1980’s.
Ivana (Maria Bakalova) plays a prominent role in Trump’s ascendancy. She first turned his head when she was trying to crash into the Club Trump and Cohn frequented. The Czech/American model and businesswoman played hard to get when he first saw her, but even though Donald professed his love, their marriage, like everything else, was transactional. The scene when Cohn with Trump presents her with an outrageously one-sided pre-nup contract shows her a better negotiator than her soon-to-be husband.
Donald’s family relationships were nothing to be proud of. He had little respect for father Fred Sr. (Martin Donovan) considering him “small time” and lacking vision. His father didn’t think Donald was smart enough and hated how much influence Cohn had over his son that could affect his own business.
The relationship with mother Mary Anne (Catherine McNally) was one of the very few built on love, although she saw through her son’s scheming when he tried to take control of the family business at the expense of the rest of the family. Donald and Fred Sr. looked down on his troubled older brother, Freddie (Charlie Carrick) for becoming an airline pilot denigrating him with the title, “bus driver with wings.”
The reptilian Cohn exposes his truly evil ways to Trump when he shows off the secret control center he uses to gather dirt on both allies and opponents. The incriminating intel he gathered was protection used to destroy anyone in his or Trump’s way. The film shows that Cohn deployed that information multiple times to help Trump get hotels and Trump Tower built.
Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Strong and Maria Makalova deliver intricate characterizations in Abbasi and Sherman’s fascinating version of Donald Trump’s opulent life in New York City. No wonder Trump and his legal team tried to keep this film out of theaters. Just one month to go before his third run for the Presidency. We don’t think this controversial film will change any minds, but it’s certainly a worth a view, no matter where you stand.
Briarcliff Entertainment / Rich Spirit 2 hours R
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