“The Apprentice” is a fantastic look at the rise of Donald Trump (played by Sebastian Stan) under the tutelage of notorious lawyer Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong).

The film portrays Trump as an ambitious young man who thought the rules didn’t apply to him. It is fascinating to see how influential Cohn was on Trump. Many of the things Trump does and says now look and sound like what Cohn was doing in the 1970s and ’80s.

He finds Cohn and, lacking approval from his own father (played by Martin Donovan, who disappears into the role), Trump looks to him as a father figure, sometimes in a rather desperate manner.

This comes as no surprise to anyone who can see through our former president’s desperate attempts to suck up to dictators like Putin. Stan plays Trump as sniveling and desperate, and one can only hope anyone who watches this that still supports him sees this biopic as a bridge too far, not wanting to support someone who grovels to the people “above him” and push down anyone he thinks his “below him.”

Strong and Stan both play expert-level scumbags. While Strong may be just playing a different version of his “Succession” character, Stan continues to impress me with the variety of roles he takes on following his rise to fame as the Winter Soldier in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The movie also shows his courtship and eventual marriage to now ex-wife Ivana (Maria Bakalova).

“You gonna ruin your life or you gonna marry me?” he actually says to her at one point when she’s considering walking away from him.

He follows it up with romantic grandstanding, but that sincere question would definitely be enough to make me walk.

You will also hear other familiar names like Roger Stone, who started in Cohn’s inner circle and eventually became the gang of criminals that Trump surrounded himself with.

If you’re curious to see how Trump fumbled his way to the top and learn more about some of his enablers, I highly recommend “The Apprentice.”

Rating: 4/5