The Apprentice

Director: Ali Abbasi 
Starring: Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Stron, Maria Bakalova, Martin Donovan, Catherine McNally, Charlie Carrick, Ben Sullivan, Jason Blicker, Mark Rendell, Bruce Beaton, Ian D. Clark, Tom Barnett, Stuart Hughes
Running Time: 123 min.
Rating: R

★★★★ (out of ★★★★)

Depending on your perspective, Ali Abbasi's Donald Trump origin story The Apprentice can be viewed as either a grotesque hit job or an accurate biographical examination of one of the most fascinating and controversial figures in American history. Or maybe, it's just a little of both. In most biopics, lines between fact and fiction blur to a point where the truth rarely matters, which is a wicked irony its subject would likely appreciate, if the movie were about anyone but him.

It revolves around a young, aspiring real estate mogul out to prove his father wrong, hustling to make a mark long before becoming a TV star or being twice elected President of the United States. With studios unwilling to take the legal risk of releasing this and everyone getting their fill of the real thing 24/7, Abbasi gives us the only Trump movie we'll probably ever need. Its title refers not to his wildly popular reality show of the 00's, but a stint decades earlier under the learning tree of cutthroat attorney Roy Cohn, who takes the eager, inexperienced businessman under his wing. A decision he'll later regret.

It's 1973 and a young Donald Trump (Sebastian Stan) is trying to get the federal government off the back of his real estate tycoon father Fred (Martin Donovan) who's being investigated for discrimination against African-American tenants. Trump meets with combative New York lawyer Cohn (Jeremy Strong), who agrees to help, in the process showing his new protégé how to make media connections and dress for the part. He also assists Trump in his quest to turn the dilapidated midtown Commodore Hotel into a Hyatt, blackmailing government officials to obtain a tax abatement.

Gaining fame and notoriety, Trump marries Czech model Ivana (Maria Bakalova) while his troubled airline pilot brother Fred Jr. (Charlie Carrick) sinks deeper into alcoholism. As his ego inflates by the day, he stops listening to Cohn and invests in rash, money losing ventures like the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City. Pushing everyone away, the marriage to Ivana implodes, as does his friendship with Cohn, whom he betrays during the crooked prosecutor's time of dire need.

It's pretty wild to finally see on screen what we've only read or heard about Trump's formative years in New York prior to him becoming as a household name. And while Abbasi lays that groundwork magnificently, the switch isn't flipped by a single event or even two. This evolution was brewing from the start, informed by both his strict upbringing and professional association with Cohn. There's an inevitability to it while still suggesting this could have gone another way for Trump if just a few things fell differently. But it didn't and Cohn lights a fuse he'll get to see explode before his 1986 death.

The film fittingly opens with the nation's jaded skepticism surrounding Watergate's immediate aftermath before seguing into the Reagan years, when Trump experiences his greatest success as the living embodiment of Gordon Gekko's "greed is good" philosophy. But it's Cohn who gives his pupil the three rules all winners live by: "attack, attack, attack," never admit wrongdoing and always claim victory, even in defeat. 

Trump will later claim those eerily prophetic rules as his in the bestselling "The Art of the Deal," but when he first encounters Cohn he's impressionable and clueless, struggling to escape the grip of his controlling dad. And what's most surreal about watching this interpretation of Trump in the late 70's is that he sort of comes across as likable and ambitious enough for us to see the same untapped potential Cohn does.

Cohn is depicted as a monster not above using blackmail, threats and intimidation against his adversaries. He's also a closeted gay Jew prone to hurling homophobic, antisemitic and misogynistic slurs when he feels it'll give him an edge, perceived or actual. Only at his lowest point do we get a small glimpse into why, though the script is careful not to frame that as some kind of mea culpa. He is who he is, with Abbasi and writer Gabriel Sherman wisely opting not to sugarcoat it.

With his piercing gaze and a robotically rapid fire delivery, an unrecognizable Jeremy Strong pulls off the ultimate disappearing act as Cohn. Conveying complete control at all times, the most powerful part of his performance comes when the teacher realizes he's done too good a job training Trump, as the prized student absorbs all of Cohn's heartless lessons, only to eventually use them against his mentor. But even when the crooked prosecutor's braggadocious bluster is stripped away by AIDS, Strong keeps us guessing as to whether he actually changes or was just overtaken by someone more ruthless.

That an ailing Cohn continues telling lies on his deathbed out of self preservation seems on brand for him, as if concealing his illness and homosexuality would somehow rescue an already shattered reputation. Strong doesn't play this for empathy or press the issue, instead subtly hinting that maybe the tiniest shred of humanity seeps through at the end.

Trump's uncomfortably disgusted reaction to Cohn's health nearly mirrors his feelings about Fred Jr.'s alcoholism. While he's initially supports his big brother and famously still doesn't drink because of this, their father looms large, insultingly calling his TWA pilot son a "bus driver with wings." And although Fred complains about how much of screw up Donald is also, it won't be long before the latter replicates his father's attitude, writing Fred Jr. off as a loser before his death shakes him in a way we don't quite expect. 

Well played with condescending cruelty by Martin Donovan, family patriarch Fred Trump is often pointed to as the central motivator for Donald's obsession with power and success. This portrayal doesn't refute that, but more noteworthy is how their relationship changes once Fred's grip slips and he's surpassed by his son, who seeks a validation he'll never get. 

Fred's not just incapable of telling Donald he's proud of him, even his backhanded compliments seem cloaked in jealousy and disappointment. If Trump Tower's opening is the closest a clearly declining Fred comes to congratulating him, it's a pathetically half-hearted endorsement that comes too late to matter. By now, young Trump's already off to the races and isn't looking back.

Once Trump ascends, he stops listening and hates being told "no," whether it's from Cohn, Mayor Ed Koch (Ian D. Clark), his own mother Mary Anne (Catherine McNally), or in a particularly disturbing scene, Ivana. Amidst these futile attempts to push back is a strangely memorable moment where a doctor tries to convey the benefits of exercise to the appearance obsessed, amphetamine popping Trump. This leads to a surprisingly graphic but powerful montage involving liposuction and scalp removal surgery.

In a role no one thought could be believably filled, Sebastian Stan is a revelation, finding just the right balance in preventing the portrayal from sliding into parody or caricature. Less an attempt at mimicry than the effort to capture Trump from the inside out, he projects the steadiest of transformations. It isn't obvious right away, but as events accumulate and the tide shifts, Stan resembles him more and more, both physically and in his mannerisms. By the time we get to the third act that resemblance is downright scary, making good on the film's promise of being an "American Horror Story."

Despite immersing us in the grit and glitz of 80's New York with offbeat soundtrack choices and stripped down cinematography from Kasper Nuxen that's indistinguishable from period footage, there are key moments of foreshadowing. Whether it comes in a revealing TV interview where Trump's asked about a possible Presidential run, Cohn's legal machinations or an exchange with confidante Roger Stone that reveals the possible genesis for MAGA, the film masterfully hints how seeds may have been planted far earlier than anyone thought.

This could have gone wrong in so many different ways or come across as a feature length SNL skit, but Abassi instead delivers a compelling account that will now fall on time and distance to judge. As the pre-credit disclaimer reminds us, issues of accuracy and exaggeration will follow any biopic, but what's more noticeable here is how every minute succeeds in capturing the perception of Trump's bombastic public persona. And by zeroing in on this very specific era, we get further into the headspace of a man we've lately struggled to picture in an incarnation other than his current one.  

BlackBerry

Director: Matt Johnson
Starring: Jay Baruchel, Glenn Howerton, Matt Johnson, Rich Sommer, Michael Ironside, Martin Donovan, SungWon Cho, Mark Critch, Saul Rubinek, Cary Elwes
Running Time: 121 min.
Rating: R

★★★ ½ (out of ★★★★)

The best thing about Matt Johnson's biopic depicting the creation of the BlackBerry mobile phone is how for extended periods you completely forget what it's supposed to be about. When the groundbreaking device makes its first appearance it actually feels like a shock, as if we haven't been building to that moment since its retro cool opening credit sequence. A mismatched pairing of two wildly different personalities, what transpires is far bigger than either envisioned, until eventually swallowing them both whole. But the best stuff comes before that when we see how this nerdy, inefficient entrepreneur reluctantly joins forces with a quick-tempered, cutthroat executive. And what should be a partnership from hell ends up working out better than expected, at least for a while.  

A character study to its core, this differs from other features about popular consumer products by deeply investing in the people involved, showing exactly how they were positively and negatively impacted by their venture. Unlike the recent Tetris, it doesn't try to be something it's not, instead examining the nuts and bolts of BlackBerry's rise to cultural prominence by getting inside the heads of those who made the magic happen. It explores their motivations and mistakes, while also charting the change they undergo when success arrives. It's not so much that they're flawed than unprepared for what awaits, suddenly forced to adapt or fall behind.

It's 1996 in Waterloo, Canada when Research in Motion (RIM) CEO Mike Lazaridis (Jay Baruchel) and best friend and co-founder Douglas Fregin (Johnson) present their new "PocketLink" cellular device to an unimpressed, distracted executive named Jim Balsille (Glenn Howerton). After their pitch bombs and Jim's hubris gets him fired from his firm, he reaches out to Mike and Doug again, offering to work with them if he's named CEO of RIM and gets half the company. Jim instead settles for a third of the pie and a Co-CEO title alongside Mike, quickly realizing they need more help than he thought. 

Upon discovering RIM is a ragtag, money losing operation with engineers spending their days playing video games and watching movies, an intimidating Jim makes swift changes, landing him and Mike a meeting at Bell Atlantic to demonstrate an early "PocketLink" prototype that will soon be rebranded the "BlackBerry." It's a breakthrough, but the device's astonishing popularity soon makes the company a target, as they're fighting off hostile takeovers, the SEC, and the sudden emergence of Apple's revolutionary iPhone. A thrilling run while it lasts, what they built is about to come crashing down. 

Loosely adapted from the 2015 book, "Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry," the whole setup is hilarious, with these men from two vastly different worlds somehow co-existing under one banner. Johnson's script really plays up just how awkwardly bumbling Mike and Doug are, making you wonder how they were let into Jim's office to begin with, much less founded a tech company of their own. The most creative liberties are probably taken here, but it helps make the story, as exceptional writing and performances breathe vibrant life into what could have easily been the driest of topics.

Mike and Jim need each other more than they know, since this brilliant but underachieving slacker  lacks the business savvy the latter brings to the table. Conversely, Mike possesses the technical expertise Jim can only fake. While they mix like oil and water, it's clear Jim sees potential in his impressionable co-chair that can be exploited so long as he handles the financial end. The film's pivot point is a Bell Atlantic meeting where Mike comes to the rescue, saving the pitch and setting them on a path where the company soars, growing at an uncontrollable rate neither can fully comprehend.

When BlackBerry takes over the cell phone market in the mid 00's, there's no turning back, which is bad news for bandana-wearing, movie obsessed co-founder Doug, who soon becomes the odd man out. Discovering an autonomy he never knew he had, Mike realizes his best friend's laid-back approach no longer fits into this new corporate structure and the days of needing Doug's input fall by the wayside. One of the funniest details come when RIM offices move, and despite the upgrade, 80's movie posters still hang, the goofing around persists and nothing changes beyond their location. But it needs to, and despite his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles wallet and video game tees, even Doug sees the writing on the wall that he's become the Woz to Mike's Steve Jobs. 

Having mortgaged his home to finance a project that's now made him richer than he ever thought possible, Jim's on top of the world. But he also has an enormous ego that's about to fly off the rails as he fends off scheming Palm CEO Carl Yankowski (Cary Elwes), installs a new no-nonsense COO in Charles Purdy (Michael Ironside) and attempts to purchase a hockey franchise. Mike and Jim's abilities to cover the other's flaws are undone by mounting legal woes that pale in comparison to their inability to counter the iPhone. The film's final scene isn't just an ingenious callback to Mike's obsession with problem solving, but how he's forced to do something he swore he wouldn't in order to keep going.

Best known for his supporting comedy roles Jay Baruchel gets a long deserved showcase, as he credibly conveys the inexperienced Mike's transformative ascent and eventual decline. Subtly indicating a constant sense of insecurity and guilt, he plays the character as if he fears everything is a fluke that could disappear at any moment. There's no such trepidation in Jim, with Glenn Howerton imbuing this greedy piranha with a slick, bombastic bluster that enables him to steamroll over everyone in his way. Knowing the clock's quickly running out, he's determined to milk every last bit of leverage, with self-sabotaging results. 

Matt Johnson provides the largest dose of comedic relief, further highlighting just how seismic a shift his friend undergoes. Doug's left in the dust, even if you can't help but think he comes out the least damaged of the three. Comfortably feeling every bit like a Canadian production in both its setting and casting, Johnson's most important contribution comes as co-writer and director, with the filmmaker showing the potential downsides of having an idea years ahead of its time. The public has to be ready for it, the technology flawless, and the capital available. If just one is missing, it's wise to brace for eventual failure.  

These guys knew exactly where the future was headed, but the obstacles proved too much, turning this into a cautionary tale that isn't entirely dissimilar to The Social Network or the great AMC series Halt and Catch Fire. It's nice to get there first, but a greater feat to actually be the last left standing at the end. BlackBerry rarely needs to remind us we're looking at the individuals who invented the smartphone, as they appear equally in awe themselves, struggling to figure it all out as they go along.

Archive 81

Creator: Rebecca Sonnenshine
Starring: Mamoudou Athie, Dina Shihabi, Evan Jonigkeit, Julia Chan, Ariana Neal, Matt McGorry, Martin Donovan, Charlie Hudson III, Kate Eastman, Georgina Haig, Kristin Griffith
Original Airdate: 2022 

★★★ ½ (out of ★★★★)

Adapted from Daniel Powell and Marc Sollinger's popular podcast and advertised as something of a cross between The Blair Witch Project and The X-Files, Netflix's Archive 81 slowly builds its mystery with an attention to detail uncommon amongst previous media explorations of cosmic horror and supernatural cults. And that isn't faint praise, as creator Rebecca Sonnenshine has many moments where it seems she will follow through in delivering one of the streamer's tightest, most absorbing series to date, perfectly exploiting the medium to dole out just the right amount of chills and suspense. It almost makes it all the way, exceeding whatever expectations accompanied a series that probably hasn't been promoted or discussed enough.

Paced just right, this isn't one of those projects that feels like it's an hour and a half movie stretched over eight to ten episodes. It has two great leads, a genuinely unsettling premise and even some legitimate scares before delivering an ending that doesn't quite stick the landing, but comes close enough to set up all kinds of future possibilities. That is if Netflix chooses to renew it, which is far from a given since it seems like just the kind of underappreciated, high quality series they'd view as expendable and cancel without hesitation. This would be a shame, mostly because it gets a lot right and could go in any number of different directions that would amass a devoted (don't say cult) following. 

Despite some plot holes that seem to grow a bit in the final few episodes, there's some great storytelling going on, with a mood and atmosphere to match, as Sonnenshine has a good handle on how much audiences can take at once, revealing key pieces of information in carefully calibrated steps. The craziness does come, but we're eased into it since viewers will definitely need their hands held going down the ramp when the answers start coming.

Figuring out where all the characters fit into this larger equation is fun, so even as the series impresses more as a tense mystery early on than the sci-fi it finishes as, it's still something fans of either genre should get a kick out of. Starting somewhat grounded for what it is, the fantastical setup raises questions that get resolved without the pay-off feeling like a total letdown. That's a tough balancing act, but in avoiding the usual creative pitfalls that have plagued inferior found footage horror, they pull it off.

When media archivist Dan Turner (Mamoudou Athie) is approached by the mysterious Virgil Davenport (Martin Donovan) of the L.M.G. corporation to restore a collection of videotapes recovered in a fire that occurred in 1994 at the Visser apartment building in Manhattan, he reluctantly accepts the job. Upon arriving at the company's research campus in the Catskills to get to work, he discovers the footage was shot by Melody Pendras (Dina Shihabi), a grad student doing a visual history project on the Visser for her thesis. After the fire, she was never seen or heard from again, her videotapes somehow recovered.

As Dan fixes the tapes, more pieces of the puzzle start coming together while viewing Melody's interviews with the building's tenants, like troubled, seizure-prone pre-teen Jessica Lewis (Ariana Neal) and the friendly but suspicious college professor Samuel Spare (Evan Jonigkeit). But something very strange is going on in this building involving late night clandestine meetings, strange paintings, seances and group chanting. With her friend Anabelle (Julia Chan) soon joining her, Melody becomes determined to find out what's happening, while also trying to gain information about her biological, possibly deceased mother, who may have stayed there at one time.

For Dan, his selection for this job was more than mere coincidence, having suffered a mental breakdown a few years ago and still haunted by the death of his family in a fire when he was young. Left alone with his thoughts and constantly watched by Davenport, Dan uncovers a shocking connection his late psychologist father, Steven (Charlie Hudson III) could have to Melody and the footage. 

Hauled up alone in this house, the lines between reality and fantasy blur, as Dan utilizes best friend and supernatural podcaster Mark (Matt McGorry) as an invaluable investigative lifeline on the outside. Contracted by Davenport to complete the job while fearing for his life and sanity, Dan's in too deep to get out, determined to get an answer to the most important question: What happened to Melody Pendras? 

Discovering along with the protagonist each new piece of information that comes out through the tapes regarding the mystery of this fire and Melody makes for a gripping batch of opening episodes, alternating back and forth between the two timelines. Given the benefit of reacting along with Dan to the information contained in her tapes gives the series a momentum that carries it to the finish line, where answers emerge. 

These opening chapters are its best, largely because both characters' stories are equally compelling, with Melody's intentions coming across as so completely honest and true in the footage that you can't blame Dan for being unable to let this go. There's also an authenticity to her story very early on that morphs into pure fright and creepiness the deeper down the rabbit hole she slides. And that's not even accounting for the personal stakes Dan has in all this, the full extent of which he's yet to discover.

Davenport's motivations for selecting this young man for the job are kept intentionally vague, building intrigue as to whether this shadowy corporate figure is as nefarious as he seems. While you'd figure most of the jump scares come in the '94 footage, and do, there are some genuinely unnerving moments with Dan trapped alone in this house and outside in the nearby woods being trailed, mentally unraveling with each tape he fixes and views. But what both time-bending storylines most have in common is that either he or Melody could just leave their environments should they choose, if not for the shared desire to get to the truth, albeit in different places and eras. But soon enough, doubt surrounds even that, as the line separating them shrinks with each passing episode. 

As Dan, Athie is a stoic, everyman presence on screen, conveying a fearful determination that often straddles the line between obsession and heroism as the story takes its surprising turns. Just as strong is  Shihabi, a Shannyn Sossamon lookalike whose magnetism shines through in the found footage and flashbacks that comprise the majority of the series. 

Shihabi probably has to do the heavier lifting, but it's a credit to both actors that they somehow keep their characters grounded and relatable when eventually dragged into pure madness. There's similarly rewarding work from the supporting cast, like Jonigkeit as the suspicious Samuel and Ariana Neal, who's a whirlwind of emotions as young Jess. As Dan's ride or die buddy Mark, Matt McGorry takes the recent podcaster horror trope and humanizes it, emerging as a more trusted resource for his friend's survival than you'd expect. 

The true test of the series' sustainability comes in the reveal, with the writers holding little back,  laying all their cards out on the table. How satisfied you are with that result may vary, but the 1920's set flashback episode,"The Ferryman," devoted to the origin story of this sinister cult, ups the creep factor at the risk of losing some ambiguity. Featuring a brilliantly disturbing performance from Georgina Haig as the cult's enigmatic founder, it fills in the blanks before making a full turn into pure sci-fi for the finale, "What Lies Beneath." 

Up to this point, the mysticism surrounding ths cult combined the best elements of the similarly James Wan-produced Saw by way of The Wicker Man and Midsommar. But come time for the big fallout, viewers will undoubtedly be reminded of Stranger Things, minus the litany of period pop culture references (though they save a huge one for the end). 

Even as it's impossible to deny the looming presence of Netflix's most popular show in the finale, what leads the story down that road isn't a cheat. Still, it's fair to question the creative choice to put it all out there, making the hypothetical very literal. In a rare series that manages to scare with possibilities of the unknown and unseen, there's a risk in leaving so little left for the imagination. 

In Sonnenshine's defense, there were probably concerns of slipping into Lost territory and getting too tangled in its own mythology by holding back and stringing us along for another season that may not come. Archive 81 ends on a gripping cliffhanger that will leave fans cursing if this isn't renewed, as it cleverly sets the stage for the continuation of a series with real legs. But taken as a standalone, it still succeeds, with the two characters' intersecting story deepening as they cross the dimensions of time and space in ways Rod Serling probably could have appreciated.