Here’s the movie Donald Trump’s lawyers and campaign team tried to keep out of cinemas. Despite the news stories of gun-shy distributors and threats against the director, this movie isn’t salacious, doesn’t feel like a misrepresentation, and isn’t out to bury the former and (most likely) future president. It’s a straight-forward character study that draws a relatively restrained portrait of a very unrestrained man.
The story focuses on the young Trump’s ascension to the top of the real-estate world in the early 1980s. He learns the ropes from the infamous New York shark Roy Cohn and develops an ethos for business and life that’s familiar to anyone who’s dealt with high-functioning sociopaths. Morality isn’t a weakness; it’s beside the point. Ends justify means. Winning is, as they say, the only thing. All else is failure, worthy of contempt. End story. Roll credits.
This film could easily have piled on the young Trump—could have editorialized—but it doesn’t. Punches do get pulled. Infamous deeds and schemes are either mentioned in passing or ignored altogether. Most of Trump’s onscreen victims are, to a degree, culpable—many of them playing Trump’s game, just not as well. If viewed through the right kind of glasses (such as those worn by your average Trump rally-goer), the young Donald might even come across as laudable—just a big bad dog who bites harder than the other big bad dogs.
There’s not a lot in the movie that isn’t in the public record. There are no real surprises, but the acting is great and the lack of storytelling bombast is admirable. There’s no need for exclamation points when the facts themselves speak volumes.