Fans of Jesse Armstrong’s award-winning family drama series Succession will have plenty of reasons to either love or hate his first feature-length film, Mountainhead. Although Succession ended in 2023 after four outstanding seasons, which some viewers may argue was too short a run, the impact of the hit HBO show is still felt today. Mountainhead doesn’t specifically exist in the narrative world of Succession – even though they’re both essentially set in the modern world – but there are no mentions of the Roy family or their media business, Waystar Royco.
Succession creator Jesse Armstrong wrote and directed Mountainhead, his very first project since Succession concluded. While Succession received rave reviews and a Rotten Tomatoes score of 95% across all four seasons, Mountainhead received much less favorable reviews, resulting in an RT critic score of 76% paired with a surprisingly low audience score of 28%. Steve Carell leads the cast of Mountainhead as Randall, a billionaire on a mountainside vacation with fellow wealthy tech personalities, Venis (Cory Michael Smith), Jeff (Ramy Youssef), and Hugo Van Yalk aka Souper (Jason Schwartzman).
10
Love: Mountainhead Is Jesse Armstrong’s Directorial Debut
Armstrong Had Never Directed A Movie Or TV Episode Before
Armstrong has gone from creating a TV dynasty to directing his first feature-length film with Mountainhead. While the film somewhat resembles two back-to-back episodes of Succession, there are certain structural requirements for a movie that differ from those of a TV script, primarily due to the significant difference in story length. Armstrong has written screenplays for film before, such as In the Loop, Four Lions, and Downhill, but Mountainhead marks his first-ever feature film directorial effort. In fact, Armstrong never directed any episode in any of his acclaimed series, including Succession and Peep Show, making Mountainhead his directorial debut in both film and TV.
9
Hate: Mountainhead’s Main Characters Are Detestable
They Lack The Charm & Likability Of The Roy Family
Image via Max
While each member of the Roy family has their own unattractive and immoral qualities, the main characters in Mountainhead are truly detestable and at times insufferable. That’s certainly intentional and part of the overall satire running throughout the movie, but it becomes nearly impossible to find any likable or redeeming qualities in all but one of the four lead characters. Creating a movie like Mountainhead is a challenge from the start, since these characters aremeant to represent some of the most powerful yet childish men on the planet. If you’re furious while watching Mountainhead, that’s kind of the point, but it doesn’t make for a lighthearted watch.
8
Love: Mountainhead Has A Familiar Billionaire Focus
The Movie Gives Sharp Inside Access To This Rare POV
Image via Max
If you’re looking for an accurate portrayal of the modern tech billionaire, Mountainhead is probably the best movie available to dive into the rarified slice of life. There’s a natural sense of camaraderie between the four main characters based solely on the fact that they’re all wealthy and successful. If one of them were not, then there would be virtually no reason for the other three to talk to them, from their elitist point of view.
These billionaires (although Souper is a mere multimillionaire who is desperate to earn his first billion, or “b-nut”) have an emergency bunker fit for kings while they propel AI-driven chaos, redefining a new line between the “haves and have-nots.”
7
Hate: Mountainhead Has Too Much Tech Bro Jargon
People Outside The Tech Space Will Have To Look Words Up
Mountainhead is authentic with its frequent use of real-world tech bro jargon, but it makes it hard to fully understand what the characters are talking about from the outside looking in. Certain buzzwords are completely foreign to the average viewer or people who aren’t involved in the tech space, some of them technical, and others an evolved form of tech bro slang.
Mountainhead is authentic with its frequent use of real-world tech bro jargon, but it makes it hard to fully understand what the characters are talking about from the outside looking in.
Personally, I appreciate the research that Armstrong must have done to include so much of this particular vocabulary, but there were many words I had to guess what they meant based on context, since I had never heard of them before. This can be a bit disorienting or frustrating for viewers who don’t want to pause and Google every so often.
6
Love: Steve Carell & Main Cast Create An Entertaining Dynamic
Many Viewers Love To Hate These Awful & Narcissistic Characters
Steve Carell and his co-stars were certainly well cast for their Mountainhead roles and brought a lot to the table in terms of making these characters memorable and entertaining. Whether you fully understand the buzzwords and plot or not, Carell and the main cast of Mountainhead are snappy and witty enough for them to be understood based on their performances alone. There’s a general comedic but menacing sense in all of these characters, and each comes equipped with their own set of “icks” and terrible traits. It’s certainly entertaining to watch these awful people lie and manipulate with such laughable self-seriousness, making them lovable to hate.
5
Hate: Mountainhead’s Plot Feels Too Close To Home
It Makes Viewers Feel Powerless & Hopeless About The Future Of The World
Image via Max
Mountainhead’s plot can best be described as uncomfortable, given the nonchalance of these out-of-touch tech billionaires letting deepfake images and videos cause global unrest. These billionaires are essentially playing god and treating humanity like players in a video game, which is a pretty eerie feeling from the comfort of your living room couch.
These billionaires are essentially playing god and treating humanity like players in a video game, which is a pretty eerie feeling from the comfort of your living room couch.
The film feels like it’s presenting a mᴀssive problem with the state of the world and the unchecked status of American capitalism, only to end with the feeling that there’s nothing anyone can do about it. These types of immature, egotistical A-holes have so much power and so little concern for people other than themselves, which is terrifying.
4
Love: Mountainhead’s Satire Is Spot On
Armstrong Creates Effective Scenarios For These Human Monsters
Like Succession, the satire element of Mountainhead is what makes it most entertaining and tolerable. Everything from a lipstick net-worth ritual to a comedic attempted murder plot makes these types of people look like power-hungry buffoons and very strange monsters. There are notes throughout Mountainhead that point to how miserable and, in some cases, apathetic these billionaires are, overcompensating with money, power, and success to cover up deep insecurities and whatnot. While these emotional elements aren’t really explored, Armstrong’s satire is effective towards what Mountainhead is actually about.
3
Hate: Mountainhead Isn’t A Laugh Out Loud Comedy
It’s Very Much A Drama, While Succession Was A Dark Comedy
Mountainhead will make viewers feel a variety of emotions – perhaps jealousy or even despair – but the comedy is a bit hit-or-miss. The film doesn’t feel like it’s trying to make you laugh, and if it is, the humor may not be as effective because the characters are so insufferable. There are moments you may want to laugh, but don’t want to give any more credit to these egomaniacs. For me, I found Jason Schwartzman’s character to be the funniest because of how sad he is beneath his mᴀssive net worth, which his friends consider low. The way he belittles himself and cares so much about what his more wealthy friends think is as funny as it is pitiful.
2
Love: Mountainhead Has An Immersive Succession Aesthetic
Mountainhead’s Tone & Look Are Undoubtedly Inspired By Succession
There’s no question Armstrong was behind the vision of Mountainhead, which has a cold yet impressive aesthetic that does feel somewhat nostalgic for Succession fans. The natural mountainside setting in Mountainhead reminded me of when the Roys and the Waystar team went to Lukas Matsson’s house in Norway in Succession season 4, episode 5. If you called Mountainhead a spin-off of Succession, you wouldn’t really be wrong. The same creator, character archetypes, and elitist setting make Mountainhead a bit of a sister project to Succession. That said, a fifth season of Succession, or an actual Succession movie, would have been much better.
1
Hate: Mountainhead’s Ending Is Bleaker Than Succession
Randall Is Certainly No Kendall Roy
The ending of Mountainhead is bleak and features no Roy-family catharsis as in the ending of Succession season 4. Steve Carell’s Randall is driven away, realizing that the deal he weaseled out of Ramy Youssef’s Jeff is off, and Cory Michel Smith’s Venis is going to do what’s best for him at the end of the day.
Randall starts to tear up silently, reminiscent of those classic Kendall Roy scenes of him looking lost or distraught in the backseat of a car, but it’s incredibly easy not to feel bad for him. He’s upset because Ven’s deal with Jeff means that he may not be able to upload his consciousness to the cloud, which any normal person watching Mountainhead would not have any sympathy for. He does, however, look like the loneliest man in the world, which is gratifying.
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