Susan Granger’s review of “Mountainhead” (HBO/Max)
It was inevitable that “Succession” writer/director Jesse Armstrong would have more to say about how power corrupts – which is why he made “Mountainhead” – a satire in which four nihilistic Silicon Valley tech titans meet to decide the fate of the world.
This summit takes place at the palatial glass-and-steel vacation home belonging to Hugo Van Yalk (Jason Schwartzman), nicknamed ‘Soupy’ – a.k.a. ‘Soup Kitchen’ – because he’s a lowly, insecure millionaire hosting three billionaires.
The ‘Papa Bear’ eldest is venture capitalist ‘Randall’ (Steve Carell), who mocks his physician’s dire cancer diagnosis; then there’s manic social media titan ‘Venis’ (Cory Michael Smith), the richest man in the world; and ‘Jeff’ ((Ramy Youssef), who controls an AI ‘moderation system’ to block phony AI-generated images..
The plot unfolds just after arrogant, entitled Venis (rhymes with ‘menace,’ evoking Elon Musk) releases content tools that allow users to create ‘deep fakes’ of ordinary people, flooding the Internet with disinformation. As the world plunges into chaos, violence erupts, markets collapse and governments fall.
Apparently, Jesse Armstrong hatched this idea while researching crypto-fascist tech-bro culture after reviewing Michael Lewis’s book about Sam Bankman-Fried for the Times Literary Supplement in 2023.
Armstrong began writing the script after Donald Trump won the Presidential election in 2024, and this is his directorial debut. Significantly, President Trump’s current “big, beautiful bill” contains a 10-year moratorium on state A.I. regulations.
Unfortunately, what eventually emerges are four reprehensible, almost-cartoon-like, tediously talking heads, speaking in a pretentious patois filled with ‘insider’ references, profanity and computer allusions.
On the plus side, kudos to location manager Paul Eskenazi for finding the lavish, modernist, 21,000-square-foot ski chalet perched on a peak in Deer Valley, Utah. Designed by architect Michael Upwall, it has seven bedrooms, 16 bathrooms, a basketball court, bowling alley, rock-climbing wall, steam room and sauna.
“The house didn’t just support the story,” Eskenazi told the New York Times. “It became part of it.”
On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Mountainhead” is a trivial, frightening 4, streaming on HBO/Max.
