The Apprentice

 

        This new biographical drama examines the life of Donald Trump in the 1970's and 80's as he was growing his real estate empire. More than that however, it is a modern day "Frankenstein" story as the young Donald meets nefarious lawyer, Roy Cohen who mentors Donald into the man we know today. Make no mistake, this is a "horror" story in the very worst way.

         Sebastian Stan stars as Donald Trump and he is fantastic. He seamlessly captures every nuance of the man, his expressions, vocal patterns and movements. It is absolutely hysterical watching him constantly fixing his hair. Jeremy Strong completely inhabits the look and spirit of Roy Cohen, one of the most vile individuals to ever walk the earth. He teaches young Donald his three rules to live by which Donald then takes ownership of in later years.

        The other principal actors are Martin Donovan as Fred Trump Sr. and Maria Bakalova as Ivana Trump. Charlie Carrick co-stars as Fred Trump Jr. and Catherine McNally is Mary Anne Trump.

         The film follows Donald as he negotiates purchasing the abandoned Commodore Hotel, his Atlantic City casinos, Trump Plaza and more. It also charts how he met, courted, and eventually lost interest in Ivana Trump. Under Mr. Cohen's influence, he develops his rule book, "The Art of the Deal".

          Donald Trump's lawyers tried to have this film banned but it finally found a distributor and they are now calling it "election interference" due to it's content and realistic portrait of Mr. Trump. It's actually a fascinating story with brilliant performances from both Mr. Strong and Mr. Stan.

           

Megalopolis

 

        Written, produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, this is his greatest cinematic achievement since "The Godfather"...nah, not really. Instead, it is an ambitious, overstuffed, incoherent at times, mess of a movie. And yet, under all that mess, shards of Mr. Coppola's genius still shine through. 

         The film stars Adam Driver (taking everything very seriously), Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza ( having fun going way over the top), Shia LaBeouf (chewing all the scenery in his scenes), Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, Talia Shire, Jason Schwartzman, and Kathryn Hunter (criminally underused). Also, in much smaller and practically wasted roles, Chloe Fineman, James Remar, D.B. Sweeney, Grace VanderWaal, Balthazar Getty, and Dustin Hoffman (who hasn't acted in years and came back for this?).

         Mr. Coppola’s vision is to merge ancient Rome with a futuristic New York and set up a confrontation between two powerful men, the visionary architect, played by Mr. Driver (with a large nod to Robert Moses) and Mr. Esposito, as the Mayor of "New Rome".  With that idea as his base, characters move through the film with dialog that ranges from non-sensical to Shakespearean and laughable to poetic. Themes are introduced and then cast aside. At times, the leads don't even seem to know what they are doing.

         While the CGI work is inconsistent, I will praise the art direction and design. Watching the film is like wandering through a moving art exhibition without a cohesive theme. There are fleeting moments of Mr. Coppola's brilliance in the rather insane look of the film and in some of the dialog but overall, the film is a slog to get through running over two hours that seem more like six gonzo hours.

           Apparently Mr. Coppola has been nurturing the idea of this film since 1977. Give the man credit for bringing his opus to fruition, and spending his own money to do it, but this is far from his greatest achievement. It is a great example of the old adage, "art is in the eye of the beholder".