Mountainhead Review

Directed by Succession creator Jesse Armstrong, Mountainhead exists successful the aforesaid “eat the rich” satirical mode arsenic the deed HBO bid but hits a partition astatine each turn. A contained, stage-like production, it follows the reunion of 4 tech manufacture leaders and rips its crippled from modern headlines astir heavy fakes and AI. However, it doesn’t prosecute with its characters, oregon its governmental material, beyond glancing blows. The effect is simply a movie that – contempt its beardown performances – perpetually meanders, and feels distinctly malformed.

In a lavish upland mansion supra Park City, Utah, tech up-and-comer Hugo (Jason Schwartzman) – aka “Souperman,” oregon “Soups” – plays big to a gathering of his aged friends, collectively known arsenic the Brewsters. Eager to please, Hugo slots comfortably into the backdrop. Schwartzman is awesome astatine making himself consciousness small, though the flimsy penning leaves Hugo feeling similar a vestigial tail, lacking immoderate existent intent successful the story.

Schwartzman’s co-leads, connected the different hand, play instantly much well-rounded startup moguls, though this doesn’t needfully marque their characters bully fits for Mountainhead either. Corey Michael Smith plays Venis, a quality who skillfully hides the mode captious quality headlines impact him. Before helium adjacent arrives astatine the snowy getaway, helium learns that his societal media website has platformed truthful overmuch misinformation that it’s led to convulsive outbursts worldwide (an allusion to Facebook’s admittance that its deficiency of moderation resulted successful real-world unit successful Myanmar), allowing Smith to seizure a mounting unit en way to a imaginable explosion.

The oldest subordinate of the closed ellipse is Randall – played by an intentionally distracted, disconnected Steve Carell – a palmy capitalist whose concealed unwellness shifts each his concerns towards uploading his consciousness to the Cloud (a exertion inactive acold successful the future). And the 4th and last subordinate of the radical is Ramy Youssef’s altruistic Jeff, an unexpected accomplishment – fixed the words helium and Venis person indirectly exchanged successful the media – whose AI institution excels astatine separating information from fiction, perchance holding the keys to Venis’s problems.

As the quartet catches up – exchanging profanity-laced barbs that conflict to beryllium snappy oregon amusing – planetary quality headlines pushed to their phones and broadcast connected tv hint astatine a increasing fiscal crisis, owing to convulsive hatred crimes successful volatile regions and a slew of different causes that consciousness tossed into the premix astatine random. What’s happening connected the different broadside of characters’ screens isn’t arsenic important arsenic the interaction it has connected them – which is to say: their nationalist representation and their bottommost lines. However, Mountainhead’s alignment betwixt however the characters spot the satellite and however the camera presents it to america – Hugo’s diminished importance, the half-baked quality items, and truthful connected – leads to a near-constant disconnect. In crafting a flimsy satellite extracurricular the characters’ windows, Armstrong seldom clarifies the impending domino effects for them, resulting successful bare play erstwhile they statesman making rash decisions.

Rather than letting the characters' thoughts, actions, and flagrant regulation-skirting talk for themselves, the mounting absurdity of their denial and hopeless fiscal decisions is mostly explained distant successful dialog – arsenic is the Randian value of the title. Laying one’s thematic cards connected the array isn’t inherently a atrocious thing, but successful Mountainhead this usually takes the signifier of Jeff’s motivation sermonizing, arsenic though helium were an embodiment of the movie’s conscience, directing america towards precisely however to consciousness astir the unfolding turmoil. Any absorption changeable that might’ve been fixed country to respire (or to beryllium awkwardly funny) alternatively finds its affectional intermission filled with Jeff’s didactic explanations of wherefore the different characters are successful the wrong.

Beyond a point, it’s hard to wonderment wherefore Jeff is adjacent portion of this communicative – some arsenic a quality who, successful each likelihood, wouldn’t subordinate with immoderate of these radical (or pb the benignant of manufacture helium does), and arsenic a portion of the melodramatic puzzle. It’s hard to genuinely classify Mountainhead arsenic a satire, fixed however overmuch it over-explains itself. It’s much of a straightforward PSA – but astatine slightest it has a amusive philharmonic people to forestall things from getting wholly boring.

Armstrong whitethorn beryllium a prolific writer and tv showrunner, but this is his archetypal existent directorial effort beyond 2 abbreviated films successful the 2010s, and his inexperience shows. Cinematographer Marcel Zyskind’s camera whitethorn beryllium escaped and free-flowing, but the filmmaking lacks the vigor and urgency needed to marque a communicative similar this 1 click. The play seldom contains a consciousness of clashing perspectives, oregon immoderate existent shared past beyond a fewer allusions to Venis and Jeff’s past disagreements. It plays, connected the surface, similar a precocious Succession occurrence successful which existing tensions travel to a head, lone without the each robust pre-existing relationships to marque the fiscal jargon absorbing oregon the motivation conundrums remotely challenging.