The Apprentice verdict: Trump biopic gets lukewarm reviews from Cannes critics after the campaign said it would sue the makers of a film showing the then-real estate mogul ‘raping’ his wife Ivana.

Donald Trump’s biopic The Apprentice has received largely lukewarm reviews following its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on Monday.

The film, directed by Ali Abbassi and written by Gabriel Sherman, follows Trump during his career as a real estate mogul in the 1970s and 1980s.

Sebastian Stan plays the businessman-turned-politician, while Jeremy Strong plays his lawyer Roy Cohn and Maria Bakalova plays Ivana, Trump’s ex-wife.

The Guardians Peter Bradshaw gave the film two stars, believing it offered a “cartoon version” of Trump’s early years.

He wrote: ‘The monstrosity here is almost sentimental, a photocopied caricature of many other satirical takes on Trump and prophetic echoes of his political future.

“It’s basically a much less original movie, its vibe borrowed from Scorsese and Coppola; Fred, Donald’s lazy older brother, even has a ‘Fredo’ scene in which he gets embarrassingly drunk and tearful at a big event, like the loser that he is.

“And like so many filmmakers today, Abbasi will continue to swoon at the quaint squalor of 1970s New York.”

The Telegraph Robbie Collin was more positive, giving the film three stars, but criticized the film for not offering viewers anything they don’t already know about Trump.

He wrote: ‘The main problem with Ali Abbasi’s The Apprentice is that the film is a character study with very few characters to study.

‘But the particular nature of the subject’s psychology makes the drama… how can I put it tactfully? – quite short in depth and turns.

‘Spoiler alert: The young Donald Trump was a wildly insecure and status-conscious hopeful whose big goals in life were to get rich, get laid, and work his way into his city’s billionaire social elite.’

IndieWire gave The Apprentice a similar verdict, arguing that it doesn’t offer viewers any new information on the subject. However, the publication praised Sebastian Stan for his performance.

They wrote: ‘The problem is that Abbasi is still possessed by a morbid curiosity about his subject that most Americans have lost the ability to muster after spending eight years studying a caricature of a person in Times Square more closely than any painting. of the Louvre.

‘If we can’t be bothered to care about the first criminal trial of a former US president (relying on payments to cover up a porn star on the eve of a national election!), there’s nothing The Apprentice can do to wake up our attention.’

The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a more positive review, calling it a “chilling account” of Trump’s association with Cohn.

Praising Sebastian Stan’s performance, David Rooney wrote: “Some will say that Stan’s performance in the central role is too sympathetic, but the actor does an excellent job, going beyond impersonation to capture the essence of the man.

“In a character study of a widely parodied and unintentionally self-parodying public figure, Stan gives us a more nuanced view of what motivates him.”

Varieties Owen Gleiberman praised the first half of the film, but felt the quality decreased as it progressed.

He wrote: “The Trump we see walks through a mirror of betrayal, harnessing his empire (and what’s left of his emotions) to within an inch of his life.

“And once that happens, we’re simply watching a well-acted TV movie made up of family anecdotes built around the Trump we already know.” At that point, ‘The Apprentice,’ as good as it is, becomes a lot less interesting.”

Kevin Maher of The times praised Sebastian Stan for his “nuanced portrayal of Trump, and wrote, “If there’s any problem with Stan’s version of Trump, especially in the early sequences, it’s that he’s almost too sympathetic.”

It comes after the Trump campaign announced it will sue the ‘fake filmmakers’ behind The Apprentice because it shows the presidential candidate raping his wife Ivana.

He said it was plagued by long-debunked lies and belonged in a “dumpster fire.”

The film tells the story of the end of his marriage to Ivana, and at one point shows Trump raping his wife and asking her, ‘Did I find your G-spot?’

In a divorce filing in 1989, Ivana raised an allegation of rape, but she overturned it in 2015. She has since died.

“We will file a lawsuit to address the blatantly false claims of these so-called filmmakers,” said Steven Cheung, communications director for the Trump campaign.

‘This rubbish is pure fiction sensationalizing lies that have long been debunked.

‘As with the illegal Biden trials, this is election interference by Hollywood elites, who know that President Trump will retake the White House and defeat their preferred candidate because nothing they have done has worked.

‘This “movie” is pure malicious slander, should not see the light of day, and does not even deserve a place in the straight-to-DVD movie section of a soon-to-close discount movie store. , belongs to a dumpster fire.’

The film’s makers are also reported to be in dispute with one of its financial backers, billionaire Dan Snyder, who is a Trump supporter and former donor to his campaign.

In Ivana Trump’s 1990 divorce deposition, she claimed that Trump raped her. She claimed Trump pushed her to the ground and ripped out several strands of her hair.

Trump denied the accusation, and Ivana Trump later said she didn’t mean it literally, but rather that she had felt violated.

In a 1993 deposition, she said: “On one occasion during 1989, Mr. Trump and I had marital relations in which he behaved toward me very differently than he had during our marriage.”

“As a woman I felt violated… I referred to this as rape, but I don’t want my words to be interpreted in a literal or criminal sense.”