Here comes Sean Penn, yet again, slamming the industry, particularly the Oscars, for “limiting different cultural expressions” and voicing his support for Ali Abbasi’s “The Apprentice” while at Marrakech Film Festival.
“The Academy have exercised really extraordinary cowardice when it comes to being part of the bigger world of expression, and in fact, have largely been part of limiting the imagination and very limiting of different cultural expressions,” Penn said at a press conference.
“So I don’t I get very excited about what we’ll call the Academy Awards [except for] when a film like ‘The Florida Project,’ or ‘I’m Still Here,’ or, you know, ‘Emilia Perez,’ of the things that are likely to happen this year,” he said.
Of note, and more amusingly, above he mentions 2017’s “The Florida Project” as being part of this year’s race, but he probably meant to say “Anora” — both were directed by Sean Baker. The important thing is that he seems to like Baker’s brand of cinema.
Penn also weighed in on the controversy over Ali Abbasi’s “The Apprentice”:
It’s jaw-dropping how afraid this business of mavericks is of a great film like that. One with great, great acting. [It’s amazing] that they too can be as afraid as a piddly little Republican congressman.
There was barely any interest in Abassi’s “The Apprentice.” The Donald Trump film, starring Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong, only made $4M in North America, and that’s despite opening in 2000+ screens.
When I saw it at Cannes, I wrote that it was a “surprisingly good” movie — one highly influenced by ‘70s filmmaking. The performances, from Strong and Stan, were exemplary. The film tackled the gradual transformation of Trump, and was done in a way that avoided SNL-style parody. Abassi’s film was actually quite restrained for most of its runtime and the story being told was a fascinating one, tackling the power dynamics between Trump and his former mentor, the absolutely fascinating Roy Cohn.
EDITOR’S NOTE: I’m curious to hear your thoughts on “The Apprentice” which is now readily available on VOD. Does it deserve to be part of this year’s Oscar race?