‘Mountainhead' review: A movie from ‘Succession' creator Jesse Armstrong covers familiar territory

Chicago Tribune

28-05-2025

During its four-season run on HBO, there was a critical consensus around 'Succession' that I did not share. Most felt the series was an entertainingly scathing, darkly funny dissection of the rich and their ridiculous, deeply unhappy lives. I admired the show's glossy craft and absurdist performances, but my issue with 'Succession' is that it never had anything to say beyond the straightforward point that these pampered monsters have all-too-human sources of anxiety and this makes them dangerous to the world at large. OK. Sure. But what kind of commentary is that, exactly? Where does it get us? The show's creator returns to the insular world of the uber-wealthy once again in his latest project, the HBO movie 'Mountainhead,' about four exceedingly vapid, highly-resourced men — including one who is seemingly based on Elon Musk — who arrive at a sleek, modernist mountainside villa for a weekend getaway, while the outside world devolves into one crisis after another.
The project had a fast turnaround, greenlit in December, filming in March over just five days and now premiering less than two months later. Clearly, writer and director Jesse Armstrong was inspired by everything that's happening around us in this particularly fraught moment and I appreciate the speedy approach; rarely is TV or film able to be this responsive. It's also nice to see HBO dip its toe back into the original film business. I just wish it had been with a project far better than this.
At least Armstrong didn't make 'Mountainhead' into a series. So there's that.
The megalomaniac Mountainheads of 'Mountainhead' are as follows: Jason Schwartzman is the home's owner named Souper aka Soups; Cory Michael Smith is Venis, the obnoxious Musk-inspired character; Ramy Youssef as Jeff, an AI founder who, at the very least, seems semi-alarmed at what's happening in the world compared to his compadres (it's a low bar to begin with); and Steve Carell as Randall, the elder statesman — or 'dark money Gandalf,' as one of them calls him affectionately — with a terminal diagnosis and therefore an interest in finding a workaround to that pesky reality of his mortality. To call them friends would be a bridge too far. Real human connections seem beyond them.
Ven's social media app has just launched a deep fake feature he describes as a content tool that's 'gonna make the (expletive) printing press look like pre-cum.' Armstrong has a fixation on this kind of dialogue, as if audiences wouldn't pick up on how crass these characters are unless they're talking in outrageous obscenities. I always think a little goes a long way with this sort of thing, whereas Armstrong is a maximalist. 'You only build a pedophile lair once, so you gotta get it right,' Jeff says sarcastically as he looks around Soup's cavernous house. Instead of a subversive excavation of the way men like this talk, it plays out like giddiness on Armstrong's part, thrilled to be manufacturing a context that allows him to put those words in a character's mouth.
But when it comes to stories of the rich and corrupt, I want a writer who has something — — meaningful to say beyond 'Aren't these people gross? But get a load at what all that money can buy!' It's an observation that fails to answer the unspoken question: What do you, the writer of this script, want to with this observation? Armstrong is both uninterested in narrative consequences for his targets and content to remain on the periphery, simply making the same observation over and over again, as if that has meaning in the end. (This pattern will feel familiar to anyone who has watched 'The White Lotus.')
The men are awkward and immature, with stunted social skills, presumably because they never bothered to learn otherwise. They didn't have to. Schwartzman is the only one who seems to be playing his character with a sense of 'Actually, why would I take this guy seriously as a human being?' and it works. Materially, these characters do not think or act in ways that differentiate themselves from anyone on 'Succession.' They are power hungry and profoundly insecure, living empty, unsatisfying lives where all relationships are transactional — a reality that holds true even when their net worth goes up.
'Mountainhead' is a talky movie and I tend to like talky movies. But at some point in the nearly two-hour running time, it just becomes boring. It's also worth mentioning that the film is strangely disingenuous about AI, a technology Ven supposedly needs for his app to mitigate the spread of false information. Not one person expresses any skepticism, which suggests we're meant to take this premise seriously. The reality is that AI itself creates lies. The idea that it could be the stopgap to the very problems it creates is not just laughable, it's embarrassing that Armstrong made it a key plot component.
'Mountainhead' — 1.5 stars (out of 4)
Where to watch: 7 p.m. Saturday on HBO (and streaming on HBO Max)