The Apprentice – a frightening film to get you in the mood for Halloween (in cinemas from Friday 18 October)

A fictionalised but highly believable study of how fast and loose lawyer Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong) schooled a young Donald Trump (Sebastian Stan) in the rules of winning – even when you’re clearly losing – before Cohn was consumed by the monster he had created.

Obsessed with image, size and opulent glamour, Trump becomes a master of hyperbole, bluff, nicknames, sexualised language, reshaping the truth, and a violent sexual assault (based on a divorce deposition by his first wife Ivana, played brilliantly by Maria Bakalova).

Yet Ali Abbasi’s movie never comes across as a character assassination.

Overall, a frightening film to get you in the mood for Halloween. 

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