Mountainhead: Jesse Armstrong's tech bro satire sparkles with 'weapons-grade zingers'

The Succession creator's first feature film lacks the hit TV show's 'dramatic richness' – but makes for a horribly gripping watch

Jason Schwartzman, Steve Carell, Ramy Youssef, and Cory Michael Smith in Mountainhead.
Jason Schwartzman, Steve Carell, Ramy Youssef, and Cory Michael Smith as the utterly repellent tech billionaires
(Image credit: Sky / HBO)

Is it possible to make a compelling film without a single likeable character? It's a proposition that Jesse Armstrong, creator of TV hit "Succession", tests to the limit in his debut feature film, said Nick Hilton in The Independent. A portrait of four utterly repellent tech billionaires, the movie plays out over a weekend away in the Rockies.

Hugo (Jason Schwartzman), a relative minnow, with only half-a-billion dollars to his name, is hosting the event at Mountainhead, his giant "modernist lair" in Utah. His guests are Randall (Steve Carell), the "pretentious" elder statesman of the group, who has just been diagnosed with cancer; AI genius Jeff (Ramy Youssef); and Venis (Cory Michael Smith), a social media tycoon whose platform, Traam, has made him the world's richest man.

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