Film Review of the Week

Drama

The Apprentice (15)

Review: Shortly after headline-grabbing Donald Trump biopic The Apprentice premiered in May 2024 at the Cannes Film Festival, replete with a disclaimer that some events have been fictionalised for dramatic purposes, director Ali Abbasi received a cease-and-desist letter from former President’s legal team. Trump subsequently lambasted the film on social media as “a cheap, defamatory, and politically disgusting hatchet job.” Some commentators on the other side of America’s political spectrum criticised the film for being too soft on the Republican nominee and pulling its bloody-knuckled punches.

Scripted by American journalist Gabriel Sherman, The Apprentice is a fascinating study of corporate greed, ambition and shady political manoeuvring in the festering underbelly of the American empire against the backdrop of the emerging Aids crisis. There are comedic flashpoints but the overriding tone is deadly serious, particularly the graphic depiction of a sexual assault on wife Ivana in a Trump Tower apartment. Regardless of where rigorously documented fact ends and artistic licence begins, Abbasi’s film evokes the era with aplomb, galvanised by two powerhouse performances. Sebastian Stan’s embodiment of Trump incorporates speech patterns and mannerisms without teetering over into caricature while Jeremy Strong’s portrayal of political fixer Roy Cohn is almost reptilian in its disquieting stillness and menace.

Events unfolds initially in 1973, when Donald Trump (Stan) is vice president of the real estate company run by his father Fred Trump Sr (Martin Donovan). The Trump Organisation is facing a costly lawsuit filed by the Justice Department for discriminating against black people wanting to rent its properties. A high-profile legal ruling could sink the company and derail Donald’s lofty aspirations to join high rollers at the Le Club members-only restaurant and nightclub in Manhattan.

To protect his inheritance, Donald forges a Faustian pact with high-powered lawyer Roy Cohn (Strong), who famously operated as Senator Joseph McCarthy’s chief counsel during the anti-communist witch hunts of the 1950s. Cohn takes Donald under his wing and employs dirty tactics to defuse the impending lawsuit. Donald steadily clambers up the social hierarchy in New York, acquires a socialite wife Ivana (Maria Bakalova) and slowly turns on everyone who aided his ascent. “Good to see you lost the last trace of decency you once had,” snarls one-time mentor Roy.

The Apprentice imagines the formative years of Trump in broad, scathing and satirical stokes that sometimes draw blood. Donald’s protectiveness of his self-destructive older brother (Charlie Carrick) is a chink of vulnerability in the magnate’s armour, which is gradually concealed beneath layers of self-aggrandisement and chest-puffing bravado. A few sideswipes feel cheap like a vignette at a party with artist Andy Warhol (Bruce Beaton) and the film is overlong but Sherman’s screenplay steadfastly avoids walking along clearly defined party political lines. And for that, Abbasi’s intriguing picture gets my vote.

Horror

Smile 2 (18)

Review: There are many important life lessons to be gleaned from writer-director Parker Finn’s gruesome sequel to his 2022 horror thriller about a malevolent presence that feeds on trauma and manifests as a rictus grin on a victim’s face before they take their life. Say no to drugs, never drink and drive, always treat the people around you with kindness, capitalise and properly punctuate text messages, going out in public without shoes in a blood-soaked gown will attract attention… Bolder and more audacious than its predecessor, Finn’s second helping of skin-prickling terror repeatedly draws attention to flashier camerawork, including a nervy prologue shot in a single take, which catches up with police officer Joel (Kyle Gallner) from the original Smile, six days after infection as he attempts to pass on the entity to a deserving candidate.

A prolonged sequence inside a speeding car also cranks up tension and an encounter between the sequel’s dance pop diva heroine and an army of demonic dancers is a triumph of impeccably choreographed chaos worthy of a standalone music video. However, directorial brio can be distracting, such as filming scenes upside down for no reason, and, more crucially, Smile 2’s lead character – played with escalating delirium by Naomi Scott – is pitiable but neither sympathetic nor likeable. I struggled to muster concern for the character’s safety.

One year after the drug- and alcohol-fuelled car accident that killed her actor boyfriend Paul Hudson (Ray Nicholson) and left her physically and psychological scarred, music superstar Skye Riley (Scott) emerges from rehab to begin the promotional whirlwind for a new world tour. “I am so grateful for this second chance,” Skye tells Drew Barrymore (playing herself) on her televised talk show. To feed the Vicodin habit that numbs her excruciating back pain, Skye secretly visits drug dealer Lewis (Lukas Gage).

Unfortunately, he is the current host of the parasitic Smile demon and commits suicide in front of Skye, transferring the malevolent entity to her. Strangers, fans and members of the entourage, including long-suffering personal assistant Joshua (Miles Gutierrez-Riley), flash Skye sickening grins, causing her to doubt her sanity during rehearsals for the tour. As horrors escalate, Skye confronts her dark past with the help of estranged best friend Gemma (Dylan Gelula) and learns about the demon’s tangled history from a mysterious stranger (Peter Jacobson).

Smile 2 raises the waist-high bar of the original with more dynamic staging, elevated jump scares and a tighter grip on sustained suspense. Scott puts herself through the emotional wringer in between impressive concert performances and dance routines. Finn’s script requires misdirection verging on a swindle to pull off one narrative twist but the picture’s final gory chorus is pitch perfect.

Animation

The Wild Robot (U)

Review: During a tense exchange in writer-director Chris Sanders’ gorgeous computer-animated adaptation of Peter Brown’s children’s book, the malfunctioning title character (voiced by Lupita Nyong’o) resists attempts by a nefarious squid-like robot (Stephanie Hsu) to prize open her metal cranium and steal her memories. “I feel fine,” professes the mechanised heroine. “You should feel nothing,” coldly and clinically responds her multitentacled captor. Audiences will experience the full gamut of feelings – despair, amusement, sympathy, anxiety and teary-eyed exultation during The Wild Robot, which integrates core emotional processing units from How To Train Your Dragon franchise and WALL-E with a unique visual palette.

Sanders’ picture has the confidence to strip back dialogue, delivering long wordless sequences that deftly tug heartstrings through the swooning orchestrations of composer Kris Bowers. Animation is utterly ravishing, employing a distinctive, hand-painted style that honours Brown’s illustrations to create a richly textured world where polished metal, circuitry and flashing lights are gradually weather-beaten by an untamed wilderness and elemental forces. Visual and verbal gags come thick and fast in the opening 15 minutes, which embrace a hilarious laissez-faire attitude to death in the wild including the apparent demise of one cute critter off-screen heralded by a bloodcurdling scream.

A consignment of six Universal Dynamics units is washed up on the shore of an island and one device, ROZZUM robot 7134 (Nyong’o), manages to self-activate to carry out its primary directive: to serve anyone in need. Local wildlife is terrified of the hulking automaton so Roz enters learning mode to translate the squeaks, grunts, roars and chirrups of furry and feathered clientele.

Following a close encounter with a grizzly bear (Mark Hamill), Roz takes possession of an orphaned Canada goose egg. The bird, Brightbill (Kit Connor), hatches and imprints on the robot. With the help of wily red fox Fink (Pedro Pascal), peregrine falcon Thunderbolt (Ving Rhames) and Canada goose elder Longneck (Bill Nighy), Roz carries out her mission to help Brightbill join the flock on the annual migration south.

The Wild Robot is an exquisitely beautiful fable about parenthood, self-sacrifice and community action, which is the icing on the cake of DreamWorks Animation’s 30th anniversary year. Three-time Oscar nominee Sanders may finally get his golden statuette after a near-miss with How To Train Your Dragon, which had the misfortune of taking flight the same year as Toy Story 3. Nyong’o’s vocal performance becomes audibly more nuanced as Roz overrides protocols and begins to communicate from a place in her metal chest that isn’t listed in her operating manual.
Our hearts respond loudly. There hasn’t been a better animated film than The Wild Robot this year.