Jesse Armstrong’s eagerly-awaited new movie Mountainhead debuts on HBO Max next week, and the bar is high. Starring Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman, Cory Michael Smith, and Ramy Youssef, Mountainhead follows four tech billionaires who have sequestered themselves to a snowy mountain retreat when their technology begins to incite chaos, and they set out to take control of the global turmoil. Writer and director Jesse Armstrong is best known as the creator of Succession, widely considered one of the best TV shows of all time.

Mountainhead is Armstrong’s first project to be released since the end of Succession and clearly demonstrates similar themes of being a black comedy and a satire of billionaire culture. Running for four seasons and winning many awards, Succession depicts the dysfunctional relationships of the media legacy Roy family as they shape modern America. Mountainhead now promises to be an interesting new piece of commentary from a writer who excels at this, and its reviews now seem to confirm it.

Mountainhead Has An 82% On Rotten Tomatoes Ahead Of Its Release

Mountainhead Is Off To A Good Start

Mountainhead‘s biggest hurdle is that it is the follow-up to Succession, and it has been argued that the movie will basically be Succession season 5. It would appear that the worst thing critics can say about it at this point is that it is not as good as Succession (via Rotten Tomatoes). However, not being as good as Succession is still a long way off from being a bad movie, and many reviews praise it.

Mountainhead currently has a solid Rotten Tomatoes score of 82%, which isn’t the most stellar debut possible, but still merits attention (Succession sits at 95%). Critics highlight its satire and comedy, finding a new way to critique this class of wealth and the effects their behavior has on everyone. Uniquely, Tim Grierson of AV Club says: “[…] it’s best when Armstrong puts satire aside for rage, seething at the tech kingpins destroying our society…“

Our Take On Mountainhead’s RT Score

It’s Not Going To Be Succession But Will Probably Be A Hit

Mountainhead‘s good but not amazing Rotten Tomatoes score probably isn’t going to slow it down when it hits streaming next week. Audiences are still in awe of Jesse Armstrong and excited to see his next project. People always enjoy watching media that they can readily access when it comes up on a streaming service that they already pay for, even if that media is objectively bad. Mountainhead, by all indicators, isn’t bad; it just isn’t the cultural milestone that Succession is. Therefore, it will probably be a smash hit next week with immense writing and acting talent on display and decent reviews to buoy it.

Source: Rotten Tomatoes, AV Club