After Election Day it may become a felony to laugh at Donald Trump’s The Art of the Deal: The Movie

From “Funny Or Die”, the entertainment production company founded by Will Ferrell, Adam McKay and Chris Henchy comes a film for the ages, the long lost motion picture based on Donald Trump’s best-selling book “The Art of the Deal”.

The Donald recounts his life and triumphs to a young boy who stumbles into his office having just shoplifted a copy of the book “The Art Of The Deal”.

There’s a gleeful edge to the satire in this production as it blends Trump’s many obnoxious and abhorrent traits into a portrait of the man as he styled himself in the eighties, from a present day perspective. It’s a difficult proposition to produce a parody of a man who, on a  daily basis, pushes the boundaries of the absurd beyond the realms of ridicule with seemingly Teflon impugnity.

Johnny Depp’s – yes, it is he – portrayal of Trump may be less cartoonish and affected than Alec Baldwin’s “Saturday Night Live” incarnation but the odious traits are all there to be seen, they’ve just lost some of their power to appal when compared to whatever the self-confessed sexual assault enthusiast has done or said now. Framed as a long-lost eighties classic rediscovered only recently, the production delights in providing VHS-quality visuals, shoddy editing and, fittingly as it purports to be directed by Trump himself, cheap, tacky and tasteless production values.

Trump may be present day’s greatest monster, but this roast sets out to portray him for the hollow, mean-spirited buffoon he really is and while it could have done with being funnier and more savage, it’s pretty good value for money given it’ll cost you nothing more than a couple of clicks on Netflix to watch it.

It may feel uncomfortable to laugh at the Cheeto-complexioned, intellectually stunted demagogue when he’s only a few unwise votes away from the closest thing we have to ultimate power but nothing robs a bully of his power like comedy. It’s just a shame that a comic cast this talented couldn’t keep up with the real thing.

the art of the deal review
Score 6/10


Hi there! If you enjoyed this post, why not sign up to get new posts sent straight to your inbox?

Sign up to receive a weekly digest of The Craggus' latest posts.

We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info.

logo

Related posts

A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988) Review

A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988) Review

Freddy steps out of your dreams and into the zeitgeist. A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master sees Freddy Krueger complete his ascent from nightmare stalker to full-blown cinematic icon. Directed by a then up-and-coming Renny Harlin, The Dream Master leans heavily into...

Ghostbusters (2016) Review

Ghostbusters (2016) Review

If there's something strange in your neighbourhood, it's probably Pokémon Go, not the new Ghostbusters I don’t know if you’ve heard, but they’ve remade “Ghostbusters” with an entirely new cast? It’s been pretty low-key and uncontroversial with almost no internet chatter around it...

Doctor Who: Nikola Tesla’s Night Of Terror Review

Doctor Who: Nikola Tesla's Night Of Terror Review

  It's shock therapy for Doctor Who as Nikola Tesla's Night Of Terror electrifies after last week's lecture Despite the wincingly bad title of “Nikola Tesla’s Night Of Terror” – bed enough to rival “Let’s Kill Hitler” and nearly enough to make me long for one of...

Pearl (2023) Review

Pearl (2023) Review

Pearl is a technicolour nightmare In Pearl, Ti West takes us back to a time when the world teetered on the edge of sanity, much like its protagonist. The film, a prequel to X, is a Technicolor fever dream set in 1918, a period drenched in the dual dread of World War I and the...

Red State (2011) Review

Red State (2011) Review

Across The View Askewniverse:Red State A year after “Cop Out”, Smith returned to the big screen with a deliberately pared-down, low budget production, something very new for him and potentially very jarring for his fans – a deliberately nasty and bleak horror movie as Smith turns his...

The Witches Of Eastwick (1987) Review

The Witches Of Eastwick (1987) Review

If you're cherry picking which movies to watch this Halloween, don't forget The Witches Of Eastwick Loosely based on the John Updike novel of the same name, George Miller’s "The Witches Of Eastwick" delivers a sly satire of the gender wars and brings a dusting of dark magic to the hollow...

The Disaster Artist (2017) Review

The Disaster Artist (2017) Review

The Disaster Artist sees James Franco make a great film out of a terrible movie. From the last days of Pompeii, through Titanic to The Hindenburg, Hollywood has a long history of adapting disasters into motion pictures, so it was only a matter of time before Tommy Wiseau’s magnificent...

Free Guy (2021) Review

Free Guy (2021) Review

Free Guy manages to find soul in the soullessly corporate Logging in to Free Guy, a sensation of corporate synergy that exploits the charm of The Lego Movie (while also borrowing its basic plot structure), updates the digital worldbuilding of Tron, and commercialises the...