November 16, 2024 – A sensational performance by Jeremy Strong (“The Big Short”) as the infamous lawyer, fixer and political hit man Roy Cohn, highlights this searing biographical drama about the rise of Donald Trump (ably portrayed by Sebastian Stan of the “Captain America” movies) in New York City in the 1970s and 80s.

Cohn, famous for the prosecution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, and for being Senator Joseph McCarthy's chief counsel during the Red Scare in the 1950s, was a feared power broker in New York in the 1970s. Trump was then on his way up in his father's real estate empire. Cohn saw Trump's potential early on and took him under his wing in 1973.

One of the things that surprised me in this movie is that it shows Trump actually working for a living, personally collecting rent from Trump-owned apartment buildings, and chafing under the conservative leadership of his father, Fred (played by Martin Donovan of “Tenet”). After meeting with Cohn at a nightclub, Trump sought Cohn's help defending the Trump organization from a federal civil rights case.

According to the movie, Cohn helped Trump win the case by using blackmail against a prosecutor. I have no idea if this really happened. I checked the fact-checking articles of this movie at screenrant.com and USA Today, which say the depictions of Roy Cohn and Donald Trump are mostly accurate, but extensive detailed fact-checking is beyond the scope of this review.

According to this movie, Trump was Cohn's apprentice in many ways, hence the title of the movie, which is not at all about the TV show of the same name. Cohn taught Trump that there is no such thing as morality, to never admit defeat, mistakes or wrongdoing, and to do whatever it takes to win at any cost.

This movie is all about the moral ruination of Trump, his estrangement from his wife, Ivana (Maria Bakalova of “Electra”) and from his brother, Fred Trump Jr. (Charlie Carrick of “Held for Ransom”) and from Roy Cohn himself. Another surprising thing I noticed in the movie is that Cohn had better business instincts than Trump did. He saw that Trump's business empire was expanding too fast, and that he was headed for bankruptcy, but by then Trump had stopped listening to Cohn.

Trump learned Roy Cohn's lessons very well, according to the movie, and when Cohn asked for Trump's help, Cohn saw, to his dismay, that Trump had become as cold-hearted and ruthless as himself. Cohn's own downfall, famously dramatized in “Angels in America” (2003) is highlighted in this movie at a birthday party Trump throws for Cohn in Florida.

This movie contains a cringe-worthy scenes of bloody medical procedures, a rape and a homosexual orgy. It is not pleasant to watch. It is relentlessly dark and downbeat. It seems like this movie is designed to affect the recent presidential election. It clearly did not, but it might offer some insight into how Donald Trump will conduct business during his second term in office, and that does not bode well for America and the world at large. This movie rates a C+.

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