"Have you no decency?"
"Oh, I've heard that before..."
Ali Abbasi does a superb job of evoking the New York of the 1970s and '80s, with the fashions, soundtrack and mores truly evoking a time that is longer ago than some of us like to imagine. From the exclusive New York clubs to the cocaine-fuelled orgies to the emergence of AIDS... it was a different time.
Sebastian Stan is perfect as Trump, inhabiting the entitled, soulless, empty man without crossing the line into doing an impression. He showcases the charm and charisma, but also makes it clear what a truly horrible orange monster the boy was and is. That scene with poor Ivana is truly horrific. Alas, if only she'd stayed with her boyfriend.
Yet the film truly belongs to Jeremy Strong, who truly inhabits both the mannerisms and the deep darkness of Roy Cohn, a truly evil man who, uniquely among the many tragic victims of AIDS, deserves no sympathy. We follow the power balance between these two men, Cohn as alpha male and mentor and Trump as supplicant at first... until the orange monster, having learned what he needs, has no further time for this pathetic, weak old man, happily claiming credit for Cohn's methods as his own.
That final, tragic, birthday party for a very frail Cohn, though... remind you of anyone?
I have not seen this film as it did not seem to get a release in the UK or it passed by our town quickly. A documentary to promote Spielberg's Lincoln release, suggests no one can know the real man on MT Rushmore; I think it needs to be rewritten, no one can know the man behind Donald Trump. There's presidents and presidents, and than...there's Donald.
ReplyDeleteIt's just gone on to Netflix in the UK, but it seems it won't be there long. I'd recommend it, if you have access.
ReplyDeleteLincoln and Trump- as far as US presidents are concerned, polar opposites!
I just watched this finally via your suggestion. Would it be right to consider The Apprentice a "horror" movie? I was very much aware of the Tump sexual assualt allegations when he first became president (though this was the first time I learned about the allegation made by Ivana); there was a dreadful animated film in 2019 called "The Queen's Corgi" which makes joke towards his sexually assaults allegations (Don't Recommed that one).
ReplyDeleteTrump has never been nor will he ever be a real man. Given the odious person he always come across, even in public, he's barely able to be considered human after some of the things he has done.
Yep, definitely a narcissist, a deeply unpleasant and nasty human being... with, these days, added cognitive decline.
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