Latest news with #techbros
Washington Post
3 days ago
- Business
- Washington Post
The next target for the creator of ‘Succession'? Tech bros, obvs.
What do you do after 'Succession'? Whom do you skewer once you've impaled the world's media titans and their deeply dysfunctional families on their own hubris over the course of four seasons? That's easy. You go after the tech bros. 'Mountainhead' is the latest from 'Succession' writer-director Jesse Armstrong — no surprise, it's available on HBO's streaming service, Max — and it's something more and rather less: a feature-length film that places four obscenely rich Silicon Valley overlords in a snowbound mansion as the world burns down around them and they plot to leverage the situation to their profits and power. It's a comedy, and a brutally dark one, that draws blood and appalled laughter for two-thirds of its running time before jumping the shark in the final stretch. Once again, a brilliant TV writer finds the compact format of a two-hour movie more challenging than expected.
Telegraph
4 days 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.
Bloomberg
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Bloomberg
HBO's Mountainhead Will Make You Laugh as the World Burns
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, traveled, 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. 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.
Daily Mail
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE The eye-watering cost of Super Bowl LX suites revealed as tech bros battle for best seats at Levi's Stadium
Super Bowl suites are already selling for record prices of up to $3million - nearly a year before the NFL's end-of-season showpiece lands in the Bay Area. Levi's Stadium, home of the San Francisco 49ers, will host Super Bowl LX in February 2026. The 68,500-seater arena in Santa Clara includes 174 luxury suites which cost as little as $40,000 for regular season games in the NFL. But some of these boxes are already being sold for more than $2.5m as tech bros from Silicon Valley battle for a seat at the biggest game in football. The start of the 2025 season is still months away but the cheapest suites are believed to be going for almost $2m. One, on the market for $2.5m, includes just six stadium seats and two stools - and is shared with another group of eight. Boxes at Levi's Stadium typically hold around 20 people and a handful are available to buy for the 49ers' upcoming games in 2025, with prices ranging from $40,000 to $50,0000. Or as little as $10,000 for preseason games. They typically come with game tickets and VIP parking passes as well as food and drink They typically come with game tickets and VIP parking passes as well as food and drink including nachos and 'Bay City Roller Dogs'. For Super Bowl LIX, they also include a VIP entrance to Levi's Stadium and a 'personal suite attendant'. But, as revealed by the Daily Mail, high rollers are treated to a 'whole weekend' of luxury ahead of Super Bowl Sunday. Earlier this year in New Orleans, where the Eagles beat the Chiefs at Caesars Superdome, guests were offered add-ons including private jet travel, alligator swamp tours, pregame parties and DJ lessons. In the days leading up to Super Bowl LIX, the cheapest suite was on the market for around $500,000. Interest waned after the Chiefs and the Eagles - two teams had appeared in six of the past eight Super Bowls - won their respective divisions. But it's understood that suites for next year are already in high demand because of the location of Levi's Stadium - just outside San Francisco - and money pouring in from Silicon Valley. Every year, most of the boxes are reserved for the NFL and its partners. The remainder are sold off to high rollers.
The Verge
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Verge
There are no good billionaires in new trailer for HBO's Mountainhead movie
Succession creator Jesse Armstrong has never been subtle with his commentary on the rich and powerful, but the new trailer for his HBO feature Mountainhead spells out exactly what makes its central characters people you shouldn't be rooting for. Set in a remote cabin at the top of a mountain, Mountainhead revolves around a quartet of tech bros whose companies have turned them into obscenely wealthy people. Though Randall (Steve Carrell), Hugo Van Yalk (Jason Schwartzman), Venis (Cory Michael Smith), and Jeff (Ramy Yousef) all have different net worths, they share the same type of worldview that comes with having billions of dollars to your name. The men see their riches as a sign that they deserve some down time relaxing in the snow while their employees keep things running at home. But the CEOs are given pause when Traam — Venus' generative AI-filled social media platform — is pointed to as a catalyst for an uptick in violence. And while the men are quick to assure one another that none of their creations can be blamed for making the world a more terrible place, it isn't long before the friends start pointing out the multitude of ways in which that is absolutely not true.
