Celebrity birthdays for the week of June 1-7
Celebrity birthdays for the week of June 1-7:
June 1: Singer Pat Boone is 91. Actor Morgan Freeman is 88. Actor Brian Cox ('Succession,' 'Deadwood') is 79. Actor Jonathan Pryce is 78. Guitarist Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones is 78. Actor John M. Jackson ('NCIS: Los Angeles') is 75. Country singer Ronnie Dunn of Brooks and Dunn is 72. Actor Lisa Hartman Black is 69. Actor Tom Irwin ('Devious Maids') is 69. Bassist Simon Gallup of The Cure is 65. Comedian Mark Curry ('Hangin' With Mr. Cooper') is 64. Actor Teri Polo ('Meet the Parents') is 56. Model Heidi Klum is 52. Singer Alanis Morissette is 51. Actor Sarah Wayne Callies ('The Walking Dead') is 48. Comedian Link Neal of Rhett and Link (YouTube's 'Good Mythical Morning') is 47. TV host Damien Fahey (MTV's 'Total Request Live') is 45. Singer Brandi Carlile is 44. Comedian Amy Schumer is 44. Actor Taylor Handley ('The O.C.') is 41. Actor Zazie Beetz ('Atlanta') is 34. Actor Willow Shields ('The Hunger Games') is 25.
June 2: Actor Stacy Keach is 84. Actor-director Charles Haid ('Hill Street Blues') is 82. Singer Chubby Tavares of Tavares is 81. Film director Lasse Hallstrom ('Chocolat,' 'The Cider House Rules') is 79. Actor Jerry Mathers ('Leave It to Beaver') is 77. Actor Joanna Gleason is 75. Actor Dennis Haysbert ('24″) is 71. Comedian Dana Carvey is 70. Actor Gary Grimes ('Summer of '42') is 70. Bassist Michael Steele of The Bangles is 70. Singer Tony Hadley of Spandau Ballet is 65. Actor Liam Cunningham ('Game of Thrones') is 64. Actor Navid Negahban ('Homeland,' ″24″) is 61. Singer Merril Bainbridge is 57. TV personality Andy Cohen is 57. Rapper B-Real of Cypress Hill is 55. Actor Paula Cale ('Providence') is 55. Actor Anthony Montgomery ('Star Trek: Enterprise') is 54. Comedian-actor Wayne Brady is 53. Actor Wentworth Miller ('DC's Legends of Tomorrow') is 53. Keyboardist Tim Rice-Oxley of Keane is 49. Actor Zachary Quinto ('Heroes') is 48. Actor Dominic Cooper ('Mamma Mia') is 47. Actor Nikki Cox ('Unhappily Ever After') is 47. Actor Justin Long ('Accepted,' ″Dodgeball') is 47. Actor Deon Richmond ('Van Wilder,' ″Scream 3″) is 47. Actor Morena Baccarin ('Gotham,' ″Homeland') is 46. Drummer Fabrizio Moretti of The Strokes is 45. Country singer Dan Cahoon of Marshall Dyllon is 42. Singer-songwriter ZZ Ward is 39. Actor Awkwafina ('The Farewell,' 'Crazy Rich Asians') is 37. Actor Brittany Curran ('The Magicians,' 'Men of a Certain Age') is 35.
June 3: Actor Irma P. Hall ('Soul Food') is 90. Singer Ian Hunter is 86. Singer Eddie Holman is 79. Actor Tristan Rogers ('General Hospital,' ″The Young and the Restless') is 79. Actor Penelope Wilton ('Downton Abbey') is 79. Bassist Too Slim of Riders in the Sky is 77. Singer Suzi Quatro is 75. Singer Deniece Williams is 75. Singer Dan Hill is 71. Actor Suzie Plakson ('How I Met Your Mother') is 67. Actor Scott Valentine ('Family Ties') is 67. Guitarist Kerry King of Slayer is 61. Bassist Mike Gordon of Phish is 60. TV journalist Anderson Cooper is 58. Country singer Jamie O'Neal is 57. Singers Ariel and Gabriel Hernandez of No Mercy are 54. Actor Vik Sahay ('Chuck') is 54. Singer Lyfe Jennings is 52. Actor Arianne Zucker ('Days of Our Lives') is 51. Actor Nikki M. James ('The Good Wife') is 44. Actor Josh Segarra ('Chicago P.D.') is 39. Actor Lalaine Dupree ('Lizzie McGuire') is 38. Actor Anne Winters ('13 Reasons Why,' 'Grand Hotel') is 31.
June 4: Actor Bruce Dern is 89. Singer-actor Michelle Phillips (The Mamas and The Papas) is 81. Jazz saxophonist Anthony Braxton is 80. Bassist Danny Brown of The Fixx is 74. Actor Parker Stevenson is 73. Actor Keith David ('Barbershop') is 69. Blues musician Tinsley Ellis is 68. Singer El DeBarge is 64. Actor Julie White (film's 'Transformers,' TV's 'Grace Under Fire') is 64. Actor Lindsay Frost ('Crossing Jordan') is 63. Actor Sean Pertwee ('Gotham') is 61. Singer Al B. Sure! is 57. Actor Scott Wolf ('Party of Five') is 57. Ron Huebel ('What To Expect When You're Expecting') is 56. Comedian Horatio Sanz ('Saturday Night Live') is 56. Actor James Callis ('Bridget Jones') is 54. Actor Noah Wyle ('ER') is 54. Bassist Stefan Lessard of The Dave Matthews Band is 51. Actor Russell Brand is 50. Actor Angelina Jolie is 50. Actor Theo Rossi ('Sons of Anarchy') is 50. Actor Robin Lord Taylor ('Gotham') is 47. Bassist JoJo Garza of Los Lonely Boys is 45. Model Bar Refaeli is 40. Drummer Zac Farro (Paramore) is 35.
June 5: News correspondent Bill Moyers is 91. Singer-performance artist Laurie Anderson is 78. Guitarist Fred Stone of Sly and the Family Stone is 78. Country singer Gail Davies is 77. Financial expert Suze Orman ('The Suze Orman Show') is 74. Drummer Nicko McBrain of Iron Maiden is 73. Jazz drummer Peter Erskine (Steps Ahead, Weather Report) is 71. Singer Richard Butler of Psychedelic Furs is 69. Saxophonist Kenny G is 69. Actor Beth Hall ('Mom,' ″Mad Men') is 67. Actor Jeff Garlin ('The Goldbergs,' ″Curb Your Enthusiasm') is 63. Actor Ron Livingston ('Sex and the City,' ″The Practice') is 58. Singer Brian McKnight is 56. Musician Claus Norreen (Aqua) is 55. Actor-singer Mark Wahlberg is 54. Actor Chad Allen ('Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman') is 51. Bassist P-Nut of 311 is 51. Actor Navi Rawat ('Numb3rs') is 48. Actor Liza Weil ('How To Get Away With Murder,' ″Gilmore Girls') is 48. Bassist Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy is 46. Guitarist Seb Lefebvre of Simple Plan is 44. Actor Chelsey Crisp ('Fresh Off the Boat') is 42. Actor Amanda Crew ('Silicon Valley') is 39. Musician Harrison Mills of Odesza is 36. Musician DJ Mustard is 35. Actor Sophie Lowe ('Once Upon a Time in Wonderland') is 35. Actor Hank Greenspan ('The Neighborhood') is 15.
Weekly
A weekly look at what's happening in Winnipeg's arts and entertainment scene.
June 6: Singer-songwriter Gary 'U.S.' Bonds is 86. Country singer Joe Stampley is 82. Jazz pianist Monty Alexander is 81. Actor Robert Englund (Freddy Krueger) is 78. Playwright-actor Harvey Fierstein is 73. Actor-comedian Sandra Bernhard is 70. Record producer and musician Jimmy Jam (The Time) is 66. Actor Amanda Pays is 66. Comedian Colin Quinn is 66. Guitarist Steve Vai is 65. Singer-bassist Tom Araya of Slayer is 64. Actor Jason Isaacs ('Harry Potter' films) is 62. Bassist Sean Yseult (White Zombie) is 59. Actor Max Casella ('Analyze This,' ″Doogie Howser, M.D.') is 58. Actor Paul Giamatti is 58. Singer Damion Hall of Guy is 57. Guitarist James 'Munky' Shaffer of Korn is 56. Country singer Lisa Brokop is 52. Singer Uncle Kracker is 51. Actor Sonya Walger ('Lost') is 51. Actor Staci Keanan ('Step By Step,' ″My Two Dads') is 50. Jazz singer Somi is 49. Actor Aubrey Anderson-Emmons ('Modern Family') is 18.
June 7: Director James Ivory ('A Room With A View,' 'Howard's End') is 97. Actor Virginia McKenna ('Born Free') is 94. Singer Tom Jones is 85. Talk show host Jenny Jones is 79. Actor Liam Neeson is 73. Actor Colleen Camp ('Die Hard: With a Vengeance') is 72. Actor William Forsythe is 70. Record producer L.A. Reid is 69. Latin pop singer Juan Luis Guerra is 68. Singer-guitarist Gordon Gano of Violent Femmes is 62. Drummer Eric Kretz of Stone Temple Pilots is 59. Guitarist Dave Navarro is 58. Actor Helen Baxendale ('Friends') is 55. Actor Karl Urban (2009′s 'Star Trek') is 53. TV personality Bear Grylls ('Man Vs. Wild') is 51. Guitarist-keyboardist Eric Johnson of The Shins is 49. Actor Adrienne Frantz ('The Bold and the Beautiful,' 'The Young and the Restless') is 47. Comedian Bill Hader ('The Mindy Project,' ″Saturday Night Live') is 47. Actor Anna Torv ('Fringe') is 46. Actor Larisa Oleynik ('3rd Rock From the Sun,' ″Boy Meets World) is 44. Actor Michael Cera ('Juno,' ″Arrested Development') is 37. Actor Shelley Buckner ('Summerland') is 36. Rapper Iggy Azalea is 35. Model-actress Emily Ratajkowski ('Gone Girl') is 35. Rapper Fetty Wap is 35.
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Toronto Sun
3 days ago
- Toronto Sun
HBO's Mountainhead will make you laugh as the world burns
Published May 31, 2025 • Last updated 10 minutes ago • 4 minute read (L-R) Jason Schwartzman, Cory Michael Smith, Jesse Armstrong, Ramy Youssef and Steve Carell attend HBO's "Mountainhead" World Premiere at The Museum of Modern Art on May 22, 2025 in New York City. Photo by Jamie McCarthy / Getty Images Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page. Over Succession's four seasons, series creator Jesse Armstrong made a name for himself as television's go-to chronicler of the uber-rich. The HBO show depicted the inner workings of a powerful, Murdoch-esque media clan and the way its members lived, travelled, celebrated and humiliated one another. It was a tantalizing look at what it might be like to have wealth so profound that it sets you apart from everyone and gives you the power to influence politics worldwide. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account Now, after two years off the air, Armstrong returns to HBO on May 31 with a new movie, Mountainhead, which almost feels like it could be a Succession spinoff. (He says he even contemplated having ATN, Succession's Fox-like news channel, playing in the background.) The cool color palette is the same; so are the zingers. Nicholas Britell is back to compose the score. Instead of media scions, however, Armstrong has turned his attention to the newest generation of powerful elites — tech bros — and raised the absurdity of the scenario. And while Mountainhead can be a bit slapdash at times, it once again proves that if you want a glimpse at the masters of the universe — one that will make you wince and laugh in equal measure — Armstrong is your man. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Mountainhead came together quickly. Armstrong cast the movie while writing it in January and February of this year and shot for just five weeks in the spring. On-screen you can feel the urgency as well as the messiness that comes with such a compressed timeline. This is an extremely timely film about the dangers of artificial intelligence, the world falling apart and powerful men who care only about their own portfolios. It could be tighter, but it's still ridiculously entertaining. The plot revolves around a boys trip to the title's namesake location — a Utah estate owned by Jason Schwartzman's Hugo Van Yalk and named for The Fountainhead. (One of his buddies jokes that it was designed by 'Ayn Bland.') Hugo, known to his pals as 'Souper' or 'Soups,' is the founder of a mental health app more interested in hooking users than actually solving mental health crises and the least wealthy of the group, which means he is mocked for only have a net worth in the hundreds of millions. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The rest are billionaires. There's 'Papa Bear' Randall, the elder statesman hiding health issues, played by Steve Carell, and Ramy Youssef's Jeff, the most conscientious of the gang, who still believes his tech can be used for good. But the biggest whale in this toxic foursome is Venis, an Elon Musk-Mark Zuckerberg hybrid portrayed with an odious air by Cory Michael Smith. In the opening moments of the film, Venis launches an AI update to the software of Traam, his Facebook-like social media platform, called 'F***' but spelled with an extra 'u,' which is part of the gag. The explicative serves to highlight his obnoxiousness, but it's also apt in another way. Essentially, Venis has created a fake-news machine, and almost as soon as he arrives at Mountainhead, it's clear his latest creation is sowing worldwide chaos. People are using its functions to falsify images, resulting in murders and coups. While this could ostensibly put a damper on the four friends' poker night, instead it turns into an opportunity, as the men start to strategize on how to use this instability to their advantage. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Jeff also has an AI tool, which has more guardrails on it — a 'filter for nightmares,' as he puts it. Venis wants Jeff to sell it to him, to help solve the global crisis he helped create; Jeff sees more money in keeping it close. But quickly the scheming inside this austere but somehow tacky mansion — there's a bowling alley downstairs — starts to move beyond simple dealmaking. Lives are on the line inside and outside the structure. Left alone to their own devices, the men grow increasingly deluded about their own power, and Mountainhead goes from satire to a more overt critique of the greed that's currently shaping our world. The actors have a great time sinking their teeth into this fantasy. Schwartzman is hilarious as Soups, who has a massive inferiority complex that the others fuel. Carell takes on a professorial air as Randall, who quotes philosophers to support his own self-interest, which involves preserving his consciousness after his death. And Youssef is endearing as the closest thing we have to a 'good guy' — who also happens to be a megalomaniac. Smith is perhaps the least famous of the bunch but the standout of the cast, his face oozing smarm as the loathsome Venis. The shagginess of the plot starts to weigh things down as the movie heads toward its conclusion. Certain moments, especially those related to the characters' outside lives, are underdeveloped, and there's an immediacy to Armstrong's satire that's almost impulsive. But the anger that spurred Mountainhead's creation is also its best quality. Armstrong is pissed off and has decided to channel that into brutal jokes. If we can't laugh at these people, what else can we do? Sunshine Girls Toronto & GTA Sunshine Girls Canada World
Winnipeg Free Press
3 days ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
What to Stream: ‘Mountainhead,' Bono documentary and Elizabeth Banks and Jessica Biel play sisters
NEW YORK (AP) — 'Succession' creator Jesse Armstrong's satirical drama 'Mountainhead' and Elizabeth Banks and Jessica Biel playing dysfunctional siblings in the murder thriller series 'The Better Sister' are some of the new television, films, music and games headed to a device near you. Also among the streaming offerings worth your time, as selected by The Associated Press' entertainment journalists: a new concert special featuring Aretha Franklin, U2's frontman reveals all in the documentary 'Bono: Stories of Surrender' and multiplayer gamers get Elden Ring: Nightreign, sending teams of three warriors to battle the flamboyant monsters of a haunted land. New movies to stream from May 26-June 1 — Armstrong makes his feature debut with the satirical drama 'Mountainhead,' streaming on HBO Max on Saturday. The film stars Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman, Ramy Youssef and Cory Michael Smith as tech titans on a boys' trip whose billionaire shenanigans are interrupted by an international crisis that may have been inflamed by their platforms. The movie was shot earlier this year, in March. — The story of hostage crisis at the 1972 Munich Olympics has been told in many films, but 'September 5' takes audiences inside the ABC newsroom as it all unfolded. The film, from Tim Fehlbaum and starring Peter Sarsgaard, John Magaro and Ben Chaplin, is a semi-fictionalized telling of those tense 22 hours, where a group of sports reporters including Peter Jennings managed to broadcast this international incident live to the world for the first time. In my review, I wrote that news junkies will find much to enjoy in the spirited debates over journalistic ethics and the vintage technologies. It's also just a riveting tick-tock. 'September 5' is now available on Prime Video. — The directing team (and real life partners) behind 'Saint Frances' made one of AP Film Writer Jake Coyle's favorite movies of 2024 in 'Ghostlight,' streaming Friday on Kanopy. The movie centers on a construction worker who joins a community theater production of 'Romeo & Juliet' after the death of his teenage son. Coyle called it 'a sublime little gem of a movie about a Chicago family struggling to process tragedy.' — AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr New music to stream from May 26-June 1 — Celebrate the late, great, eternal Aretha Franklin with a glorious new concert special, 'Aretha! With Sheléa and the Pacific Symphony' airing on PBS. The title is a giveaway: Sheléa and the Pacific Symphony team up to perform the Queen of Soul's larger-than-life hits: 'Respect,' 'Natural Woman,' and 'Chain of Fools' among them. It's now available to stream on and the PBS App. — 'These are the tall tales of a short rock star,' U2 frontman Bono introduces 'Bono: Stories of Surrender,' a documentary film based on his memoir, 'Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story.' The project will become available to stream globally on Apple TV+ now and for the tech heads among us, it is also the first full-length film to be available in Apple Immersive on Vision Pro. That's 180-degree video! — For film fans, Yeule may be best known for their contribution to the critically acclaimed 'I Saw The TV Glow,' which featured their dreamy cover of Broken Social Scene's 'Anthems For a Seventeen Year-Old Girl' as a kind of theme song. On Friday, the singer-songwriter-producer will release their latest album, 'Evangelic Girl Is a Gun' via Ninja Tune Records — an ambitious collection of electronic pop from a not-to-distant future. — Music Writer Maria Sherman New television to stream from May 26-June 1 — Sheri Papini, a woman who pleaded guilty and served jail time for lying to law enforcement about being kidnapped, is sharing her story for the first time. A new docuseries features interviews with Papini herself, her family, attorneys and psychiatrist. She also takes a lie-detector test on camera and participates in reenactments. Papini maintains she was kidnapped by an ex-boyfriend, but says they were having an emotional affair at the time. She claims he held her against her will, sexually and physically abusing her, before letting her go. 'Sheri Papini: Caught in the Lie' is a four-part series airing on ID. It will stream on Max. — Elizabeth Banks and Jessica Biel are Nicky and Chloe, dysfunctional sisters in the new Prime Video series 'The Better Sister.' It's based on a novel by Alafair Burke. The two are estranged and Chloe is raising Nicky's son as her own — and also married to her ex. When a murder occurs, the sisters must become a united front. It's now on Prime Video. — In 'Downton Abbey' and 'The Crown,' Matthew Goode plays a charming English gentleman. In his new series 'Dept. Q' for Netflix, he's … English. Goode plays Carl, a gruff detective who is banished to the police station basement and assigned to cold cases. He forms a rag tag group to solve a crime that no one, not even himself, thinks can be cracked. 'Dept. Q' is from the writer and director of 'The Queen's Gambit.' It premiered Thursday. Wednesdays A weekly look towards a post-pandemic future. — A new PBS documentary looks at the life and impact of artist George Rodrigue. He's known for paintings of a big blue dog with yellow eyes (called Blue Dog) but also is credited for art that depicted Cajun life in his home state of Louisiana. Rodrigue's paintings helped to preserve Cajun culture. What people may not realize is how the Blue dog is connected to Cajun folklore. 'Blue: The Art and Life of George Rodrigue' debuted Thursday and will also stream on — Alicia Rancilio New video games to play week of May 26-June 1 — Tokyo-based From Software is best known for morbid adventures like Dark Souls and Elden Ring — games that most players tackle solo, though they do have some co-op options. Elden Ring: Nightreign is built for multiplayer, sending teams of three warriors to battle the flamboyant monsters of a haunted land called Limveld. Your goal is to survive three days and three nights before you confront an overwhelming Nightlord. This isn't the sprawling, character-building epic fans would expect from the studio, but those who are hungry for more of its brutal, nearly sadistic action will probably be satisfied. Take up your swords on PlayStation 5/4, Xbox X/S/One or PC. — Lou Kesten
Globe and Mail
4 days ago
- Globe and Mail
Jesse Armstrong's Mountainhead: Succession's successor sharply satirizes a new class of billionaire
Before he transformed the idea into a hit HBO television series, the British screenwriter Jesse Armstrong first wrote Succession as a film. I've always been curious what kind of movie Armstrong's original screenplay – which landed on the so-called 'Black List' of best unproduced screenplays of 2010 – would have resulted in. Armstrong's new HBO film that premieres in Canada on Saturday night on Crave (8 p.m. ET) may be the closest we'll ever get to seeing what that would have looked like. While not a Succession spin-off per se, Mountainhead certainly seems to exist in an expansion of its universe – where the characters and the satire are both extremely rich. The film begins with a bit of exposition, efficient if not all that elegant, that sets up the background of the story through news footage. Traam, a social media site used by billions around the world, has introduced a new suite of artificial intelligence features. Without any moderation, they have led to bad actors to create real-time deepfakes that have quickly sparked violent and even genocidal conflict all around the globe. Despite this worldwide chaos he's created, Traam's cocky owner Venis (Cory Michael Smith) – the richest man in the world and, from a brief glimpse of his parenting style, at least partly modelled on Elon Musk – is headed off on a weekend retreat with his tech-bro besties. An oversized SUV, private jet and helicopter ride away is a new mountaintop mansion in the Canadian Rockies that has been built by Hugo (Jason Schwartzman), who, with a net worth of merely $500-million, is considered the poorest of his billionaire pals. Indeed, he's nicknamed Soupy, short for Soup Kitchen, for that reason. (Yes, Hugo has named his retreat Mountainhead in an apparently non-ironic homage to objectivist novelist Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead.) Also joining on this jaunt are Randall (Steve Carrell), described as a 'Dark Money Gandalf' and unwilling to admit that all the wealth in the world cannot cure the type of cancer he has; and Jeff (Ramy Youssef), who has a modicum of ethics compared to the others and a rival AI platform that quickly could undo all the damage that Traam is doing – but only if Venis names the right price. Full of poetically garbled tech jargon and inventively profane put-downs, Armstrong's screwball dialogue in this film is as enjoyable – and unquotable in this newspaper – as Succession's at its most absurd. His satire is sharpest in the ways he parodies tech-bro libertarian stances. In self-serving denial of the effect of Traam is having, Venis recalls that when the Lumière Brothers showed their first movie of a train, the audience jumped for cover. 'The answer to that was not stop the movies,' he says, with the type of specious argument one normally has to pay big bucks to hear at a Munk Debate. 'The answer was show more movies.' Randall follows up with his own risible reasoning to ignore the suffering of others, delivered in a sarcastic tone: 'There will be eight to 10 cardiac arrests during the Super Bowl. Stop the Super Bowl!' For all its line-by-line dark pleasures, Mountainhead would quickly grow tiring were it not for the fact that Armstrong's plotting of shifting power dynamics among these four is pretty clever as well. Venis has to dance around how to get Jeff's AI without compromising his pride, while Randall goes deeper and deeper into dangerous delusion as he imagines that perhaps Traam's 'creative destruction' might speed up the eventuality of transhumanism and the ability for his consciousness to be uploaded to the mainframe. Then, there's insecure Hugo who will go along with any plan as long as someone invests in his meditation app that he hopes might finally push him over a billion in net worth. There is, however, an unresolved tension at the heart of Mountainhead, as there was in Succession, between how much the audience hates these characters and also enjoys spending time laughing at (with?) them – and how to balance the fact that the ultra-rich are beyond the reach of consequences, while satisfying the desire to punish them. Unable to really have his characters develop or truly grapple with the implications of their actions without humanizing them, Armstrong returns to his old underwhelming stand-by – scenes in which his monsters stare into the distance miserably, or look at themselves in the mirror as if try to the find shreds of humanity behind their mask. Ultimately, with so much of Mountainhead's action taking place in a single location, you see how Armstrong's style of writing is suited for a TV screen over a big one – and why it's for the best Succession didn't happen as a movie. Indeed, you could even see Mountainhead dropped on a stage, with minimal edits to the script. Finally, male actors who wanted to explore the depths of toxic masculinity and American capitalism would have a more up-to-date work than David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross (incidentally, now on in New York starring Kieran Culkin).
