Donald Trump's The Art of the Deal: The Movie

Donald Trump's The Art of the Deal: The Movie is a mediocre TV movie that has its ups and downs in terms of writing, despite a talented cast. Funny or Die certainly gathered an impressive creative team to parody the most controversial presidential candidate in American history.

There are great cameos throughout, such as Patton Oswalt and Ron Howard as himself. The star of the show is Johnny Depp, taking a very interesting turn as Trump himself, he may not sound very much like him, but his mannerisms and dialogue is stellar, he brings the character to life in his own very unique way.

It does get tiring after a while, twenty minutes it and the humour started to die down for me, it was very one note, fifty minutes was too much. The run time may have been a bit more bearable if they were not so inclined to make the movie look extremely low budget, purposely making the colour off putting, I got the joke but it took me out of the "plot" too much. While there are certainly funny moments, The Art of the Deal falls flat for me, if you enjoy making fun of Donald Trump you might as well check out Funny or Die as they take the joke way too far, other than that avoid it.

A satirical adaptation of business tycoon Donald Trump's bestselling novel, as he teaches a young boy how to make it big in the industry.

Best Performance: Johnny Depp

The concept of this movie is actually really fascinating to me. Personally, I really dislike Donald Trump, and a good satire of him would work extremely well! Also, it's interesting how this movie is a) an adaptation of his book "The Art of the Deal" b)is shot as mockumentary, and has a cool visual style, and c) Johnny Depp is playing Donald Trump!

However, the movie itself is nowhere near as good as its concept!While I did laugh a couple of times here and there, it was, overall, very unfunny. Most of it is immaturely making fun of Trump instead of packing the movie with little details about Trump's life that would take actual research. I'm ALWAYS impressed when those behind the scenes actually do research on whoever/whatever they're satirizing.

But, despite the movie not really being funny, I thought Johnny Depp did a pretty great job. He doesn't look or sound much like the real Donald Trump, but his performance is extremely unique and bizarre, and I really found myself enjoying!

Also, I'd like to comment on the people angrily calling this movie "propaganda". I highly disagree with them. It's just a quick little comedy that pokes fun of Trump, it's no "Triumph of the Will"! Really, calm down!

Overall, this movie made me agree with what Ron Howard said at the end of the credits.

While Darrell Hammond on Saturday Night Live does a decent Donald Trump, Johnny Depp of "Pirates of the Caribbean" fame proves why he may be the best performer in Hollywood. In this relatively short satirical film, Depp delivers an absolute spot-on imitation of the business magnate-turned-television reality star-turned-republican presidential demigod. If this was a more serious film at feature length, you'd start thinking Academy Award! At 50 minutes, it's just about as long as I could take in a movie concerning the most arrogant man on the planet with delusions of Godhood, although Depp's performance is more than worth the price of admission.

When I first found it on Netflix, I didn't know what to make of it. I began watching the featurette with lots of questions, the biggest being why had I not heard of it? The film begins with an explanatory intro by film director and former child/adolescent star Ron Howard. He explains the film was produced, written and starred Donald Trump in the late 1980's but was pre-empted by a Monday Night Football game in 1988, a lousy one at that. All copies were destroyed in a fire, according to Howard. Decades later, Howard was rummaging in a yard sale and he and another pack-rat found the only surviving copy among heaps of stuff. The other pack-rat was about the build of Melissa McCarthy, but luckily Howard won the day and has brought the film out for public consumption.

The film begins like one of those TV movies of the week you used to see in the 1970's and 1980's. Just about every television cliché is present from the music, similar to "Dallas", "Knots Landing", and "Love American Style" to the glittering fonts. Every credit is "Donald Trump" from producer to actor to editor. The film begins with a kid stealing a copy of Donald Trump's "The Art of the Deal" and escaping into an office. Of course in the office is Donald Trump (Johnnie Depp). The film becomes a mish-mash of episodes through his book as Trump explains how he got to where he is through being a ruthless and heartless American businessman. The kid is a mesmerized one-person audience hearing Trump's "story", if story it can be called. Chapters include among other things how to win lawsuits and how to defraud tenants. A few Hollywood name talent also appear including Alfred Molina (da Vinci Code) and Henry Wrinkler (who used to play Fonzie with Ron Howard on Happy Days in the 1970's).

While in some ways, "The Art of the Deal" is sort of like a long Saturday Night Live sketch, Depp's performance is superb. He's captured all of Trump's gestures and idiosyncrasies right down to fiddling with his hair. If a more serious film about the rise of Trump were ever produced, Depp would be the hands-on choice. A real interesting experiment in filmmaking, and if it weren't for the fact that this narcissist disguised as a human being is trying to become king of the world, he'd probably being suing Depp and the director Jeremy Konner and writer Joe Randazzo. Luckily, Trump is rather busy. Trying to become king of the world is a full-time job.

Donald Trump didn't coin the phrase "There's no such thing as bad publicity," but he may as well have (and he might even take credit for it anyway). For a titanic media figure whose image was already virtually predicated on self-satire (even before his recent bid for presidency), Trump's belligerent braying has courted many a satire in his time, but few that have made much of an incisive mark. If anything, the glut of recent Trump riffing, from SNL to Jimmy Fallon, have more than likely backfired in their riffing intent, and only served to further bolster the outrageous silliness of Trump's media personality, rather than drawing much- needed attention to the many problematic aspects of his campaign. As James Poniewozik from the New York Times mused, "How do you spoof a candidate who treats campaigning like a roast?"

This is the major sticking point with Funny or Die's 'Donald Trump's the Art of the Deal: The Movie'. On paper, a fantastic idea - Ron Howard introduces a videocassette of Trump's (fictional) '80s-set informercial-turned-TV-movie, lost in "the Cybill Shepherd blouse fire of 1989" (one of the film's choicest one-liners) - the film plays as an overlong skit which flounders due to not being terribly funny, and crucially lacking in any particularly percipient satire. Is it amusing? Yes, for the most part, but fairly blandly so. With an unfocused sense of humour broadly skewing for everything from Citizen Kane gags (thank goodness for Patton Oswald and his cinema-literacy) to occasional pokes at the fourth wall (some more successful than others, though one mid-film "re-casting" bit is a winner), to toilet humour, preciously few bits raise more than a faint smile. Oddly enough, where the film really excels is as an '80s pastiche, with its washed out VHS fuzziness, corny montages, and chirpy, gratuitous child lead(s) acing the tropes enough to make John Hughes proud. There's even a Kenny Loggins theme tune, bless 'em.

Of course, the film's main bid for attention is its 'who woulda thunk it?' stunt casting of Johnny Depp as Trump - and, yes, it's as much of a rollicking success as you've heard. With the aid of some impressive prosthetics and a mighty hairpiece, Depp nails Trump's fidgety physicality and distinctive Queens bellow. However, he's also wise enough to dig beneath mere mimicry, finding notes of preening sinisterness and occasional desperation, entirely devoid of empathy, all coalescing into a performance that feels entirely human, and all the more unsettling for it. The gaggle of guest stars are also generally good for a laugh - Oswald, transposing his characteristic neurotic schlub into a Miami Vice villain is a scream, while Alfred Molina tirelessly fishes for peanut gallery one-liners as Trump's seedy "Jewish lawyer." Even if most of the cast are invited to retool their best bits from other work, they're all still on top form - Jack McBrayer revisiting his bubbly, hollow- eyed imp from 30 Rock, Henry Winkler his blustery hypocrite from Arrested Development, while Robert Morse gets one more adorable 'top of the ladder' yuk, and there's a Christopher Lloyd cameo so stupendous I won't spoil it here. Still, it's a shame such a superb ensemble isn't given more to do than be fairly repetitively roasted by Depp's Trump, believable as it may be.

'Believable,' ultimately, is the sadly operative word. If Funny or Die's intent was to defame Trump's image midway through the primaries, it's a bit of a redundant effort: such an unfortunately gentle satire is hardly news for Trump-opposition, while those firmly on Team Trump are unlikely be shaken by any of Depp's mugging, excellent as he is. Call it the Wolf of Wall Street effect (though The Art of the Deal is a far feebler effort): the artistic intent is to present Trump's misdemeanours at barely exaggerated face value, intending them to speak for themselves as inherently absurd and satirical. However, due to Trump's cult of personality, those already swayed by him are all too likely to reppropriate the joke as sincere, making it a bit of a disappointingly apolitical backfire of a political satire. Ultimately, Funny or Die's The Art of the Deal means well, but it's lazy, highly produced, and lacking in cohesion and teeth, muddying its point in a bunch of loud, airy bluster counterbalanced with infectious enough buffoonery to ride out in spite of itself. In short, it's everything Donald Trump would love.

-5/10

Context: I am not American, and do not live in the US.

In many ways, this could be compared to the 2015 HBO TV-movie 7 Days in Hell. It's essentially a long skit based around one central idea, featuring a number of celebrity cameos. It's something where those involved obviously must have had great fun making it, and that joy is transferred to the viewer.

There is also a case to be made for a comparison between this and 2015s Kung Fury. Both rely heavily on replicating (and exaggerating) the looks and feel of popular media from a former decade (specifically the 80s).

While I can not be sure about their motives, it's easy to imagine that the people involved with this meant this as a sort of satirical reflection over Trump's character, or as an comedic attack on him. Because of Trump's way of handling his legacy and public image (basically not caring), this is not a very successful game plan. And because the caricature of Trump in this movie is (sadly) believable, it never becomes all that funny.