Jesse Armstrong, the acclaimed creator of "Succession," turns his sharp satirical lens on the tech elite in his feature film debut, "Mountainhead." Premiering on HBO and Max, the film assembles four ultra-wealthy tech titans—played by Jason Schwartzman, Steve Carell, Ramy Youssef, and Cory Michael Smith—for a supposedly friendly poker weekend that quickly unravels into a darkly comic battle of egos and ambition.
Set in a lavish mountain mansion, the story follows Hugo (Schwartzman), a meditation app developer desperate for investment, and his billionaire friends: Venis (Smith), a social media mogul with four billion users; Jeff (Youssef), an AI innovator; and Randy (Carell), a venture capitalist facing terminal illness. As news breaks that Venis’ latest AI feature has triggered global chaos, the group’s camaraderie dissolves into scheming and self-preservation.
Critics praise Armstrong’s biting dialogue and the film’s timely resonance, highlighting how "Mountainhead" skewers the delusions and moral detachment of tech billionaires The movie’s first half leans on dry, intelligent humor, while the second half erupts into absurdity as alliances fracture and the group’s incompetence is laid bare.
Despite its comedic edge, "Mountainhead" offers a bleak portrait of power and isolation, with characters so insulated by wealth that the suffering of billions becomes an abstraction Armstrong’s transition from television to film is marked by the same incisive critique that made "Succession" a cultural phenomenon, but this time, the targets are Silicon Valley’s most untouchable figures.
"Mountainhead" is now streaming, leaving audiences to debate: in a world run by tech titans, who’s really holding the cards?
