Technocrats' Idiocy Will get Demolished in Succession Creator's Mountainhead: Assessment

On the luxurious Mountainhead resort in Utah, 4 males collect for a enjoyable grasp, united by one factor: Their staggering quantities of cash. These are males value a whole lot of hundreds of thousands, if not billions, because of their involvement in tech and different industries (the businesses they personal are fictional, however have real-life parallels that aren’t onerous to trace). Bonded on this method, Randall (Steve Carell), Hugo (Jason Schwartzman), Venis (Cory Michael Smith), and Jeff (Ramy Youssef) have created a pleasant little fraternity with its personal lexicon, nicknames, and rituals, like a ceremony through which their respective web worths are in contrast after which rewarded with completely different hats. They’re on the literal prime of the world.

Whereas issues appear peaceable up at Mountainhead, the surface world isn’t fairly so fortunate: The social media platform owned by Venis has simply launched a brand new characteristic that allows customers to create immediate deepfakes, and the result’s an enormous unfold of violence the world over, individuals rioting within the streets over each faux atrocities in addition to the actual atrocities that happen in response to the faux ones.

Venis isn’t apprehensive in regards to the chaos — Venis, the truth is, is thrilled about the place this chaos would possibly lead. And that’s about when the technocrats in Mountainhead begin speaking about how perhaps the world can be a greater place if they only… took it over. They sure find the money for and energy to do it. Why not?

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There’s an excellent motive, one which Armstrong not-so-subtly reveals over the course of the movie: These guys are idiots. Not within the apparent methods, however in that method that occurs if you’ve been surrounded by sure males for thus lengthy that you simply now not have any self-doubt, and now not can inform the distinction between your dangerous concepts and your good ones. While you’ve been handled as a genius by the surface world so typically that you simply truly begin to consider it, regardless that your “genius” is rooted in a fortunate break, or buying an organization whose inside workings you don’t fairly perceive however know can generate revenue.

At one level, a personality makes an offhand crack about how one among them “can’t code for shit,” however there’s actually no indication any of those guys truly understand how the tech that’s made them wealthy works. All whereas they discuss in a blase vogue about being “post-human” within the subsequent 5 years — Venis is bound that tech can be prepared. He says it with the identical confidence as a CEO promising a Mars base by 2028.

Over Succession‘s 4 seasons, creator Jesse Armstrong developed an actual expertise for tearing down the self-importance of the Roy household, and as author and director of Mountainhead he deploys an identical technique. “Silly individuals speaking like they’re good” principally defines 75% of the dialogue from Succession, and it’s fascinating to see Armstrong discover a special approach on it, peppering these traces with extra invented slang that these guys positively suppose makes them sound cooler than they’re.

Mountainhead (HBO)

There was an emotional core to the Succession story, although, that introduced some recognizable humanity out of its characters — particularly, the combat for a kiss from Daddy. The lads up on the mountain, in the meantime, are all about posturing amongst themselves, whilst actual destruction begins to pile up exterior.

Over the course of the 110-minute runtime, just a few notable twists escalate the motion, resulting in a few of the film’s wildest darkish comedy, performed just like the driest of champagnes. But Mountainhead isn’t all that cinematic in its execution: It’s higher approached as a self-contained experiment in storytelling, one that will translate fairly simply to the stage given the chance.

This forged proves particularly sport for that: Cory Michael Smith (Gotham, Saturday Night time) is a dwell wire on display screen, his virtually manic certainty unwavering, whereas Steve Carell retains his potential to emote tempered, delivering one among his most reserved performances up to now. Ramy Youssef’s Jeff is perhaps the one one with a totally functioning conscience, a top quality that units him other than the others, particularly Jason Schwartzman’s ceaselessly brown-nosing Hugo — the “poorest” of the bunch, and at all times conscious of that.

The most important draw back to Mountainhead is that for individuals who didn’t get pleasure from Succession as a result of the characters weren’t that likable… properly, think about watching a quartet of Kendall Roys all attempting to impress one another. Armstrong’s dialogue flows like nobody else’s, however there’s one thing just a bit bit insufferable about listening to silly individuals discuss like they’re good, and Armstrong doesn’t draw back from that side.

Whereas Mountainhead was first introduced in January 2025, it was filmed in March — just about concurrently with information reviews about what occurs if you let an unqualified fool play his chainsaw video games with authorities infrastructure. It’s onerous to think about the timing being higher for this film consequently, but it doesn’t promise any options or hope for the issue it acknowledges: The way in which wealth can warp a human soul. The one downside cash can’t repair.

Mountainhead premieres Saturday, Might thirty first at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT on HBO and Max. Try the trailer under.