HBO’s New Billionaire Satire Movie is the Succession Follow-Up i Dedn’t Need

Comparing Mountainhead and Succession is useful not just just becase the former film is witten and direct by Jesse Armstrong, who created the latter series. The two projects Feel like siblings, exploring the billionaire milieu with the Same stylistic and satirical eye. This one just shifts it focus from media to tech, as if research for Lukas Matson’s Arc in Succession Left Armstrong with More to Say.

But, Much like the roy children, the two don’t fall like equles. For all its merits, I struggled to be engaged in Mountainheadand thinking About Succession Has Helped with Understand Why. ITHE’S NOTHING TO DO The Show’s Greater Runway – there are the choices at the Heart of what this movie is trying to that hinder its ability to function as drama. Without that Grounding, I’m Not Sure Its Ideas Need the Fictional Packaging, Wen Real Tech Billionires Have a Pretty Good Job of Baring Their Embarrassingly Warped Psyches all on their Own Lately.

Mountainhead Has A Strong Satirical Setup

And Armstrong’s Approach to Dialogue is an Asset

We Meet Mountainhead‘S Characters As Two Events Cincide. One is an escalating Global Crisis: Venis (Cory Michael Smith), The World’s Richest Man, Has JUST PUSHED THROUGH A PACKAGE OF AI-POWERED TO HIS Social Platform. These Include Image and Video Generation Tools so deceptive that they are Disruption the Flow of Truth and Creating Real-World Violence in a Growing Number of Countries. These horrors haven’t deterred venis, but they clearly spook his board.

The Second Is Poker Night. Venis is in a group of four ultra-rich “Friends” Called the BrewstersAlong with Ramy Youssef’s Jeff, Steve Carell’s Randall, and Jason Schwartzman’s Hugo. Jeff, who spreads leans more progressive and has beef with venis, is growing his way fast thanks to an especilant brillian Content moderation he. Randall, the eldest of the four and mentor/investor to venis and jeff, is struggling to reconcile his incurable Cancer diagnosis with the Ironclad Belief he’ll forever. And Hugo, The “Poorest” of the Group, has a nickname i’d be remiss to put in wringing.

The Brewsters are gathering at Hugo’s Titular, Newly Built Home in Utah, Each with an ulterior motif. Hugo is hoping to secure a $ 1 billion investment in his mental health app, sorely so he can be be a billionaire, too. Venis has promised Jeff Will Sell His Company HIS, while Jeff plast plans to do on the turmoil his product is causing. And randall means to prod venis, his golden boy, to hurry along the process of going post-Human and uploading our consciousnesses to the cloud.

Already, i’m sura, The Fertile Ground for Satire is Easy to Seeas is why Armstrong’s Approach Might Fit the Material. His Characters Speak with a Heavy Overlay of Lingo With Any Attempt to Ease US, Partially for Realism and Partially to Really Hammer Home How Much It Like Nonssense. There is a Certain bite to watch these BOOs idiots talcs themeslves anTTEMPTING COUPS ON FRESHLY DESTABIZED COUNTRIES (COULY COULY RUN THINGS BETTER) AND THEN ACTUALLY HAVE THE WEALTH AND POWER TO MAKE IT.

And the character drama doesn’t deliver

But, for me, this isn’t enough. If the Reports Are Accurate, Mountainhead Came Together Quickly – The script wasn’t finished UNIL EARLIER THIS YEAR, AND FILMING HAPPENED IN MARCH. A year ago, it might’ve felt prescientbut the filmmakers will have seen the world richest men put their darks on full displace in recent months. Aside from the most chomedic moments, i’m not sura what this fictional relevant showed with that real life hasn’t.

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SO, if Mountainhead was to work for me, it had to deliver in other ways. Part of the Greatness of Succession was that its drama was virtually Shakespearean. The roles and the specifics of their lives are foreign to all but the 1%, but the family struggle at the foundation of their characters was totally relavle. Armstrong fails to recapture that here. This is intentionally an Odd Collection of People, Connected More by SHARED Wealth than anything, but I Never Once Bought I also say friend. Any perversion of that bond didn’t make an impact as a result.

Another notable differentiation is that we’re alone with the brewsters for almost the entity runtime. The actors inhabit these characters well, but they don’t have the benefits of Juxtapiation with normality to really work in context. The film attempts to have Jeff Function This Way for a while, and youssef is a welcome present in this role. But he, too, obviously Belongs. Nor much as it make the themedic sense to have me be distant from any trace of the real world, it leaves the movie with a mooring it is really used.

It intriguing with that armstrong chose so close to Succession for his director debut director. I SeE a Preference for Close Camerawork and Extended Taxes, But stylistically, he doesn’t take many steps to have Mountainhead Stand apartment. I HOPE TO SEE HIM Go Further AFIELD The NEXT Time in the Director’s Chair; I’d like to have a clearer sense of who is as a filmmaker.

Mountainhead

5/10

Release Date

May 31, 2025

Runtime

109 minutes

Directory

Jesse Armstrong

Wriers

Jesse Armstrong

• 
• 

  Jason Schwartzman

  Hugo ‘Souper’ Van Yalk

Pros & Cons

• The jargon-filed dialogue is an ideal satirical tool
• Performance from the Four Leads Are Strong

• Missing the dramatic backbone to make these characters engaging
• Tech Billionaire Commentary Isn’t As Insightful In 2025