Mountainhead Movie Review: Jesse Armstrong's New Film About Tech Billionaires Is Unsettling Yet Familiar

We all watch them and analyze their every public message, their words, and their actions. But what do the most powerful and controversial tech leaders, like the Zuckerbergs, Musks, Thiels, and Altmans of the world, actually say to each other in private? Mountainhead, an HBO movie that came out on May 31, tries to imagine such a meeting. Jesse Armstrong, the person who created Succession, wrote and directed this darkly funny and sharp film. The problem is, especially now, the very men this film aims to make fun of no longer hide their strange ideas or bad intentions. After perfectly making fun of the Murdoch-like media families in Succession, Armstrong might have found a group so open about their odd beliefs that they are almost impossible to truly mock.

The film was thought of, pitched, shot, edited, and finished in only seven months. This quick pace shows Armstrong’s feeling that it was very timely. Mountainhead is a wild story that mostly happens over a weekend in the mountains. Cory Michael Smith plays Venis, a social media founder who is also the richest man alive. His social media platform, Traam, just got an update. This update allows about half the world’s population to easily make and share deepfakes that look real. These images immediately cause violence in many places around the world, just as Ven's advisors warned him they would. Instead of stopping everything to fix it, save lives, and prevent chaos, like anyone with a bit of feeling would do, he goes off to ride snowmobiles and take drugs with three other powerful men. It is an unsettling start.

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To his credit, though he does not deserve much of it, one reason Ven has come to the isolated, very modern Mountainhead estate is to ask Jeff (Ramy Youssef) for access to an AI Jeff has developed. This AI could automatically filter out the most damaging content on Traam. Jeff, who is more grounded than his tech-focused friends and has gained a lot of money by predicting problems like the one Ven has caused, does not want to help his frenemy. Both men are students of Randall (Steve Carell), a man who is driven by his own ideas and is a lot like Peter Thiel. Randall's starting funds, his strong interest in extending human life through technology, and his twisted readings of philosophers like Plato have shaped their careers. Yes, Mountainhead is a reference to the book The Fountainhead. Jeff jokes that it was decorated by Ayn Bland. Another of Randall's students, their host Hugo (Jason Schwartzman), is called Souper, short for Soup Kitchen. This is because, with only $521 million in the bank, he is the last of them still trying to get his first billion. I found myself wondering if he would even have been invited if he had not organized the trip.

Ven is not the only one with a hidden goal. These people are so focused on getting ahead and being productive that they never do anything just for fun or even for friendship. Their first agreement that no business would happen during the weekend quickly breaks down as each character shows their hidden plans. Souper wants his friends to put money into his "lifestyle super app," which is really just another meditation app. He even practices a sales pitch. It sounds very much like something a bro would say. Jeff might be the least showy of the group, but he clearly enjoys his new money and power. Also, the trip is a good distraction while his girlfriend is in Mexico for what might or might not be a "f-ck party."

Most out of touch of all is Randall. He thought he had beaten cancer but has just been told he has an incurable form of it again. Instead of trying to deal with this news or accepting his doctor’s hopeful suggestion that the right treatment could keep him alive for another five to 15 years, he insults the doctor for not having vision. He asks "You’re not a very intelligent person, are you?" before leaving him on an airport runway. Randall is sure that technology could give him endless, disembodied life. He keeps asking Ven about when his dream of uploaded consciousness will happen. Death, he seems to think, is for normal people and fools. About the growing problems caused by the Traam update, he just shrugs and says "You’re always going to get some people dead." It is chilling.

Can Jesse Armstrong Even Satirize These Billionaires When Reality Is Just As Strange?

When Real-Life Tech Figures Are Already Acting Out The Wildest Scenarios

During that same talk, early in the film, Ven casually asks a question so basic yet so alarming that it stays with you for the rest of the film. "Do you believe in other people?" he asks Randall. "Eight billion people as real as us?" Randall replies "Well, obviously not." He is laughing when he says it, but his willingness to dismiss other people’s lives while desperately holding onto his own shows that this extreme self-focus is not a joke. Like Succession, Mountainhead is directed like a comedy. Each scene is a clash between silly people. But it is built on a serious idea about the huge power these monsters have over everyone else on Earth. In this case, the message is that men like Ven and Randall and Zuck and Elon do not even believe that other human beings are real people. Armstrong suggested in an interview that this lack of humanity is part of the "first principles" way of solving problems that people like Musk and Jeff Bezos use.

Mountainhead examines the results of tech pseudo-mysticism. It does this much like Succession’s difficult Season 4 Election Day episode examined the results of the Roy family's media manipulation of American politics. The difference is that Succession had three and a half seasons before that episode to create detailed character studies. These studies helped us understand why the characters made their world-changing decisions. Because Mountainhead has less than two hours to introduce these people and show how they cause a kind of worldwide disaster, its four scary characters can feel a bit flat. They feel like they are put together from alarming news articles and bad social media posts. It is not that Armstrong is wrong about who he is making fun of. He just does not seem to know much more about them than the average online person who has been upset by the same headlines for years.

Examining the Actors' Roles and Why Some Parts of Mountainhead Just Don't Connect

Weighing the Strengths of the Cast Against the Film's Quick Pacing

One reason it is hard to go deeper is that Mountainhead’s characters talk a lot and are very open, like the real-life neo-eugenicists and "blood-boy dads" of Silicon Valley. They do not leave much room for hidden meanings. Armstrong does make a good choice by letting viewers come to our own uncomfortable ideas about Jeff. Jeff shows off his moral superiority. He keeps criticizing Ven about the number of deaths from Traam, but he is the one who could set aside his ego, flip a switch, and end it. They look like the kind of guys who would rather make money from a disaster they created themselves, calling it a "controlled burn" of society's problems, than take responsibility for the suffering they have caused. And that is exactly who they turn out to be.

The movie is not without enjoyment for fans of Succession. The talking is wonderfully out of touch. One phrase about a "frosted Pop-Tart of Palo Alto" might stick with you. The casting is great. Smith is the smooth, self-centered leader. No one would be a better follower than Schwartzman. Youssef makes Jeff enough of a bro to fit with this group but also enough of an outsider to dislike their arrogance. Carell's acting is the most dramatic, but his character is also the most desperate. When Randall shouts "I take Kant really f-cking seriously!" you might not believe he truly understands the deeper meaning of Kant, but you do not doubt he needs the others to think he does. If you like awkward humor about rich people, there is Souper complaining that pitted olives mean "some greasy little monster from Whole Foods has had his little fingers in them." He even uses lipstick to write each guest’s net worth on their bare chest. If scary twists or bad father figures like in Succession are your thing, keep watching past the first hour. If you like smart humor with some silly moments, Mountainhead’s shiny house will help with that too.

Armstrong certainly has not lost his touch. It would just be more interesting to see his skills used to make fun of people who are not already telling on themselves. I thought the acting was strong across the board. Steve Carell delivers a performance that makes Randall both ridiculous and tragic. Cory Michael Smith perfectly plays the detached billionaire. Jason Schwartzman manages to find the humor in Hugo’s desperation. Ramy Youssef’s Jeff is the closest thing to a moral compass, but even he has his flaws. Their interactions, though, sometimes felt a little too theatrical for me to fully believe they were actual friends. The film moves quickly, which means we do not get as much time to understand these people as I would have liked.

What Mountainhead Leaves Us With After Spending Time With Such Unsettling Characters

The Lingering Feeling After Watching a Film That Holds a Mirror To Our Strange World

Mountainhead is a film that comes from the current times. It shows how powerful tech figures operate with little regard for the wider world. The movie makes you think about whether powerful people truly believe in the humanity of others. It is a dark, funny, and uncomfortable watch. It might not be as deeply felt as Succession, partly because the characters are so openly awful from the start. We do not get the gradual understanding of their badness. Instead, we are dropped right into their self-centered world.

The film raises important questions about accountability and power in the modern age. It makes you wonder about the mindset of those who control so much of our digital lives. While the movie ends on a cynical note, it feels true to the observations it makes throughout. It is a striking commentary on our current situation. I believe it is a film that will certainly spark conversation and leave you thinking long after the credits roll. It is a stark reminder of the strange times we live in.