Whether you hate him or love him, Donald Trump is an essential figure in pop culture. It is frequently parodied and imitated, both by comedians and by social networks in general. His distinctive speech patterns and grandiose, often absurd statements make him easy to imitate and recognize, creating a cartoonish persona that can sometimes seem cartoonish. This reality makes a dramatic film about Trump a difficult prospect. Because it is so simple to reproduce on screen, what could a more serious film really say?

It turns out the answer is somewhere between “a lot” and “nothing new.” The apprenticewritten by Gabriel Sherman and directed by Ali Abbasi, reflects on the past to understand the current Republican presidential candidate. Sebastian Stan, complete with believable wig and prosthetics, plays Trump in the late 1970s, ready to make his mark on the New York real estate scene. It’s when he meets powerful lawyer Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong doing his best Jeremy Strong) that Trump begins to become the man we now see babbling about Hannibal Lector at rallies.

The apprentice is a biopic of sorts that attempts to give a more complex form to young Donald as he rides and moves around town. He meets and seduces blonde model Ivana (Maria Bakalova) and marries her, but their relationship takes a back seat to his obsession with Cohn. He’s also obsessed with his father Fred Trump (Martin Donovan) and gaining his approval, although the film doesn’t always make it clear who Donald actually wants to impress as he works his way to the top. In the film, Cohn is responsible for Trump’s unusual way of speaking and the way he presents himself as a modern-day monarch. We see Cohn acting as a mentor to Trump, which is based in truth, and then we see Trump reject Cohn as he succumbs to AIDS.

It’s no surprise that the real Trump challenged The apprenticeespecially since its representation is not always very flattering. Stan, an impressive actor, never makes Donald unlikable, but the film features the character undergoing liposuction and plastic surgery, taking drugs, and raping Ivana — something she publicly clarified never happened. It’s common knowledge that Trump is often consumed by his appearance and reputation, and the film makes that literal with these scenes, particularly the visceral depiction of liposuction. All of this obviously makes for interesting storytelling, but sometimes the drama overshadows the subject matter.

Although the film centers on Trump, a divisive man who poses a real threat to American democracy, Sherman and Abbasi leave room for The apprentice to embrace broader themes. It’s about the possibility of corruption and how easily money and power can lure us. We will do anything – literally anything – to become rich and untouchable, as Trump appears to have done. The film is an indictment against this sensibility, in general, even if Stan’s view of Donald doesn’t become a villain. This is to the credit of the actor, who seems to want to question the man rather than the character. Perhaps this is why his performance is not a parody and, at times, the character does not evoke that recognizable figure often mentioned in films. Saturday evening live. Here, Trump is a toxic and clichéd example of American masculinity, driven by the promise of status and wealth. It’s still his pursuit today, albeit on a larger scale, and Abbasi suggests that the fascist threat of today’s Trump has its origins in that chance meeting between him and Cohn decades ago. It’s a compelling idea. If only the film itself held up.