Latest news with #RamyYoussef
New York Times
4 hours ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
5 Animated Political Satire Series to Stream
The state of American politics can feel so exaggerated and far-fetched that one of the best ways to represent it is through a medium made for such absurdity. Animated satirical series can depict our country's political figures and moments at their most bizarre, sometimes taking aim at a particular party or politician, and sometimes lambasting the general idea of America as a fair, free and democratic nation. What follows is a guide to animated satires of American politics and politicians from the first Bush administration to the Biden administration. #1 Happy Family USA (2025- ) This new series, created by the comedian Ramy Youssef and the writer Pam Brady, depicts a Muslim Egyptian American family in New Jersey who must learn to properly code-switch and project the image of a nonthreatening, properly assimilated family in order to carry on in the midst of the prejudice and jingoism of post-9/11 America. Much of the series focuses on the exploits and misadventures of Rumi (voiced by Youssef), who tries to find his place among his middle school peers. But beyond the more standard adolescent story lines, '#1 Happy Family USA' hilariously skewers the likes of Fox News and George W. Bush, and also offers a stringent critique of how American beliefs and values shifted at the expense of many Muslim citizens and people of color after 9/11. Streaming on Amazon Prime. American Dad! (2005- ) The series creator Seth MacFarlane (who also created 'Family Guy') has said that 'American Dad!' was inspired by his frustration with the 2000 presidential election and the Bush administration. The sitcom stars the Smith family, the patriarch of which, Stan, is a jingoistic far-right Republican who works for the C.I.A. Conservative politics take many of the satire's hits, but characters like Stan's hippie daughter and her boyfriend then husband represent leftist targets that get mocked regularly. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
USA Today
15 hours ago
- Entertainment
- USA Today
How to watch 'Mountainhead,' a new TV film from the creator of 'Succession'
How to watch 'Mountainhead,' a new TV film from the creator of 'Succession' Show Caption Hide Caption 'Superman,' Mission: Impossible,' 'F1' and summer's must-see films USA TODAY film critic Brian Truitt releases his list of summer's must-see films. The highlights include "Superman" and "Mission: Impossible." Curious about how an eccentric group of billionaires would behave if the world fell apart around them? A new HBO Original film will explore how this hypothetical scenario might play out on screen. The movie, written and directed by "Succession" creator Jesse Armstrong, follows a billionaire friend group, who happen to all be cooped up in a cabin, when an international crisis breaks out. The tech tycoons in question are played by Cory Michael Smith, Steve Carell, Ramy Youssef and Jason Schwartzman. One of the billionaires' new generative AI tools may or may not be the cause of the "recent uptick in ethnic tension." Since the demise of human civilization is imminent, they hatch a plan on the best way to split the countries up between themselves in case they need to step up as rulers. "We are the smartest men in America," Randall, one of the billionaires, says in the "Mountainhead" trailer. "We literally have the resources to take over the world." Here's what to know about "Mountainhead," including how to watch. What is 'Mountainhead' about? According to the film's official logline, "Montainhead" is about "a group of billionaire friends (who) get together against the backdrop of a rolling international crisis." 'Mountainhead' release date "Mountainhead" will be released May 31 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on HBO. 'Mountainhead' cast From Steve Carell to Ramy Youssef, here are the actors and characters who make up the fearsome foursome. All of these characters have made their fortune in tech. Steve Carell as Randall Jason Schwartzman as Souper (Hugo Van Yalk) Ramy Youssef as Jeff Cory Michael Smith as Venis How to watch 'Mountainhead' "Mountainhead," an HBO original film, will premiere May 31 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on HBO. The movie will then be available to stream on HBO Max. Watch the 'Mountainhead' trailer
New York Times
a day ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
‘Mountainhead' Review: While We Go Down, They Bro Down
Over four seasons of 'Succession,' the creator, Jesse Armstrong, told the story of people who control the world by selling ideas: the Roy family, who ran and fought over a media and entertainment empire. Toward its end, as their business was sold to a tech entrepreneur, 'Succession' suggested that power was shifting, and that the future belonged to silicon hyperbillionaires. In his film 'Mountainhead,' which premieres Saturday on HBO, that future has arrived, and it is both terrifying and ridiculous — not unlike our present. In the scabrous story of a weekend getaway for four tech-mogul frenemies, Armstrong finds that our new bro overlords are rich targets for satire, though when it comes to depth, nuance and insight, their story has nothing on the Roys'. As 'Mountainhead' begins, countries around the globe are erupting in hatred and sectarian violence, fueled by A.I.-generated propaganda. This chaos is the whoopsie of Venis (Cory Michael Smith), a chuckleheaded social-media entrepreneur whose company pushed a half-baked software update that gave bad actors around the world the sudden ability to create unfalsifiable deepfake videos. (The name 'Venis,' a seeming portmanteau of 'venal' and 'penis' that is pronounced 'Venice,' is Armstrong's sensibility in five letters.) The world is burning. But in the snowy, Randian-named retreat that gives its name to 'Mountainhead,' Venis has arrived to chill with his boys. Jeff (Ramy Youssef) has developed possibly the only A.I. capable of weeding out the dangerous fake videos from Venis's company. Randall (Steve Carell), a self-styled philosopher-exec, tosses around terms like 'Hegelian' in a way that makes you wonder if he's ever finished a book. And Hugo Van Yalk (a wonderfully debased Jason Schwartzman), the owner of the property, is a meditation-app developer nicknamed 'Soup' — for 'soup kitchen' — because his net worth is a mere half billion dollars. The edgy bro-down that ensues is fueled by unspoken rivalries and schemes. Venis wants Jeff to sell him his A.I., which would allow him to call off the apocalypse without having to do an embarrassing recall of the update. Randall, who has received a concerning diagnosis, is keen on Venis's plan to usher in the 'transhuman' era by uploading people's consciousnesses to the cloud. Soup wants someone to fund his anemic wellness app and finally add a zero to his humiliating nine-digit wealth. The film centers almost entirely on this quartet. (Like the Roys, they mash up aspects of several real-life analogues — Musk, Thiel, Zuckerberg and more.) The narrow focus matches their perspective: The four men see themselves as the only real people in the world, while the other eight billion of us are NPCs. At one point, Venis asks Randall, 'Do you believe in other people?' The only reasonable answer is, 'Obviously not!' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Telegraph
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Mountainhead, review: Jesse Armstrong's takedown of tech bros is even more cynical than Succession
A Succession spin-off film? Well, not quite, but Jesse Armstrong 's feature-length satire of the extremely rich and increasingly powerful, Mountainhead (Sky Atlantic), doesn't stray too far from the Roy family formula, and features the behind-the-scenes involvement of a whole host of his Succession team, including composer Nicholas Britell. However, instead of tarring and feathering Murdoch-esque media empires, Armstrong (who writes and directs) has set his sights on the new money – the billionaire tech bros and their grandiose plans to 'disrupt' the world. It is, somehow, even more cynical than Succession. This exquisitely performed dark comedy is a claustrophobic chamber piece that takes place in a Utah mega-lodge up in the snow-capped mountains, where four old pals – 'Mount Techmore' – meet for a poker weekend while the rest of the world seemingly falls apart. It is, in essence, a high-falutin' episode of Inside No 9. The reason for the global unrest is the world's richest man, Venis (Cory Michael Smith), a tweaked-out sociopath whose latest updates to his social media platform Traam have unleashed havoc, thanks to an explosion of fake news and generative AI. The markets are in free-fall, sectarian violence is erupting everywhere, politicians are being assassinated. The world order is ending. While on the outside, Venis is thrilled by it all, he desperately needs the help of his frenemy Jeff (Ramy Youssef), whose sophisticated AI-filtering system could restore Traam's credibility and the world's sanity. Joining them for a weekend of tension and glorious one-liners are Steve Carell 's 'dark-money Gandalf' Randall, the elder statesman of tech bros, and host Hugo (Jason Schwartzman), a financial pygmy (he's worth a paltry half billion) who desperately needs the others to invest in his meditation app. He's called his tasteless pile 'Mountainhead' and, yes, that name is tackled early on by Jeff: 'What, like Fountainhead? Who was your interior designer – Ayn Bland?' Needless to say, Armstrong's script is an embarrassment of riches when it comes to the zingers, and you could spend an enjoyable evening in the pub debating your favourite gags, but it would all amount to nothing without Mountainhead's unsparing psychological insight. Venis is a terrific monster, a ripped frat boy who thinks he can solve the Israel-Palestine conflict with 'bananas' online content and is obsessed with turning the world population 'transhuman'. The quartet bandy their callousness and casualness towards human suffering with grotesque machismo, and sprinkle their jargon-heavy, ultra-online conversations with half-arsed references to Hegel, Plato and Kant. When they get wind of the worldwide upheaval, the bros – apart from the minutely less terrible Jeff – smell an opportunity, triggering some serious God-complex one-upmanship. This leads to a nail-biting denouement that manages to be extremely funny yet without the sophistication of what came before it. As with Succession, Mountainhead is a caustic, defiant and righteously furious diatribe against the maniacal egos of those with all of the money and all of the power, but no vanishingly little moral fibre – and all wrapped up by the best jokes in the business.
BBC News
2 days ago
- Business
- BBC News
Jesse Armstrong: Why I'm writing about rich people again
Jesse Armstrong, one of the UK's most successful screenwriters, is not one to rest on his off the back of his hit show Succession, which followed the twists and turns in the lives of media mogul Logan Roy, played by Brian Cox, and his four children, Armstrong is back with his first feature-length film, a satire film about a group of four tech billionaire friends who go away to a mountain resort for the weekend but find themselves and their social media companies under scrutiny as social unrest spreads across the at the Hay Festival, Armstrong says: "People start by saying, 'Why are you doing these rich people again? And it's a fair question. They're tech billionaires. Succession was about a big media family. And I think it's because I'm interested in power, I don't think it's about just wealth."Succession was very clearly about why is the world like it is, who has power?"HBO's Mountainhead, starring Steve Carrell and Ramy Youssef, was made very quickly."We did it at great speed. I pitched it in December and wrote it in January... carried on re-writing it through pre-production and then shot it in 22 days, then edited it."We only finished (editing) about a week ago and it's on TV this weekend!"Armstrong, 54, wanted to do a quick turnaround on the film to try to capture the feeling and pace of technological developments and society's fear about keeping up. "The anxieties that we have about technology, especially AI, feel very present and move quite fast. And I wanted to try and write it in the same mood as you might be when you're watching it, so I was keen to do it quickly," he says."Another attraction for me was that I've never directed anything before and it made me feel less anxious to run at it and do it really, really quickly." Armstrong, who cut his teeth in children's TV before writing for shows such as The Thick of It and going on to co-create series like Peep Show and Fresh Meat, said the inspiration for Mountainhead came from listening to podcasts."I wrote a book review about Sam-Bankman-Fried, the crypto fraudster, and then I read more and more about tech, and I started listening to podcasts of senior tech figures, from Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg and Sam Altman, but also the mid-level people and even lower level - it's an ecosphere."I couldn't stop thinking about the voice of these people. I do love getting the vocabulary right. For me, that opens the door, once I can hear them talking. And since it seems like the AI companies are scraping so much of our hard work to train their models, I thought I would scrape them back [using their podcasts]!"Armstrong told the Hay audience that while he knew his job was to engage viewers, writing the film "was a way of expressing a load of feelings about that world and about those men - they're almost all men in that world - and it's cathartic". His shows are known for their dark humour and Armstrong says if he had to write his job description in his passport application, he would put down "comedy writer", adding that he doesn't think of himself as a storyteller."I'm trying to make a story engaging that will probably involve people laughing. And the bit that I find most challenging is finding a story because people remember jokes, but you just won't make it through that half hour or hour unless that story is is compelling enough to make an audience follow along." 'More fearful' Many writers and showrunners end up directing episodes of the series that they have created but Armstrong says he couldn't do that on Succession, which won multiple awards including 14 primetime Emmys."I always felt like the people who did it were so good at it that it was rather rude of me to suggest I could just come in and do it just as well."Armstrong doesn't appear to be your stereotypical confident showrunner, coming across as quite shy and humble, despite his success."Sometimes very creative people have a real 'screw you' attitude to authority, and I don't have that. Maybe I'm a bit more fearful, a bit more amenable. I like everyone to be happy. I want to to give people what they want in quite a decent and humane way. "I don't have a confrontational attitude to people I work with, unless someone's a jerk - I hope I can stand up for myself and the work."Mountainhead is released on HBO and Max on 31 May
