Fred Hayes/ HBOSuccession showrunner Jesse Armstrong’s dystopian characteristic movie debut, premiering on HBO, has “well timed resonance” on this “high-tech second”.
What if tech bros dominated the world? What in the event that they already do? Jesse Armstrong’s close-to-reality satire, Mountainhead, exposes that skinny line between these truly holding authorities energy and people pulling the strings behind it. It’s the first movie directed in addition to written by the creator of Succession, and gives a reminder that earlier than that good drama about energy, capitalism and household dysfunction, he was a author on pointed political comedies together with The Thick of It and the movie Within the Loop. Mountainhead, directed with a clean confidence that reveals Armstrong’s expertise, strikes deftly from a satiric drama in its first half to absurdist black comedy within the second.
It focuses on 4 tycoons, good associates on the floor however cutthroat beneath, who collect for a poker weekend on the luxurious residence of the poorest of them, the one who is barely value half a billion {dollars}. The place Succession took a protracted view of energy and media manipulation, Mountainhead is made to have well timed resonance on this high-tech second. Armstrong solely started capturing the movie in March and right here it’s.
Armstrong has brilliantly forged these 4 characters, who all have agendas for the weekend and attempt to conceal them from one another. Jason Schwartzman is Hugo, the host and creator of a meditation app, angling to get certainly one of his associates to speculate a billion or so in his enterprise. Steve Carell is Randy, whose contacts in Washington, DC can affect the navy and the nation’s energy grid. Recognized with incurable most cancers, he cannot imagine cash cannot repair that, however hopes to cheat dying by getting his associates to create a man-made intelligence in a position to add a human mind. Ramy Youssef is Jeff, whose firm has a superefficient AI, and who seems to be probably the most humane of the 4 (which is not saying a lot). However probably the most hanging character is Ven (Cory Michael Smith), the proprietor of a social media app known as Traan. Collectively they’re an amalgam of tech tycoons reminiscent of Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg. However Ven pointedly and unmistakably evokes Elon Musk, nonetheless totally different Smith’s look and method. Ven is the world’s richest man, who owns a social media platform that reaches 4 billion customers and who will get a cellphone name from the US president (unnamed and unheard) whereas at Hugo’s. The short turnaround permits the movie to be up-to-the-minute, even when it by no means explicitly mentions precise individuals.
The fictional plot extrapolates a nightmare model of the place a consolidation of billionaires’ management would possibly lead, in a world the place social media has overtaken journalism and run amok. Even earlier than the boys arrive for the weekend, we hear information stories of worldwide conflicts set off by misinformation and deep fakes on Traan – an assassination in France, a deadly fireplace set in India, migrants being focused in Libya. The economies of Latin American international locations begin crumbling. Remoted at their mountaintop retreat in Utah, actually positioned above all of it, the tech bros doomscroll these dystopian occasions and see a possibility to achieve much more wealth and energy.
The lads arrive on their personal jets, however the movie shortly settles into one setting, Hugo’s huge, sterile-looking glass-walled home. We’re immersed of their cringey friendship, as they throw supposedly mock insults at one another, following up any caustic comment that truly hits a nerve with “I am simply razzing.” Armstrong retains the digicam and the dialogue shifting quick, so the only setting and small forged by no means really feel claustrophobic.
All of the actors make their outsized, unlikable characters believably terrible. Schwartzman incessantly performs hangdog characters, which is beneficial right here as we immediately intuit that Hugo’s bravado masks his insecurity. As at all times, Carell impressively turns from comedy to drama in a flash, and his line deliveries are supersharp. Armstrong has given him among the movie’s most memorable dialogue. After Ven takes his name from the White Home, which isn’t pleased with the world dysfunction, Randy says, “The president’s a very nice man and a pal however he is…” and Carell takes a earlier than occurring: “he is a simpleton.” Underlining the bros’ boastful however not unrealistic sense of their very own significance, he provides: “It does not matter what he says. It issues what we are saying.” Youssef’s ever-sincere expression is ideal for Jeff, who truly thinks it may be doable to cooperate with the federal government. And Smith’s depiction of Ven is good, all sharp edges and social cluelessness.
The primary half’s tone is certainly one of droll wit fairly than laughter, and it is absorbing but in addition a bit apparent. However midway by way of, a shift in tone is signalled by a quick, nearly slapstick scene during which Randy bumps right into a glass door and leaps up off the ground. Three of the boys start to conspire towards the fourth, and completely fumble finishing up their outlandish scheme, which should not be spoiled right here. This final half is livelier, with some laugh-out-loud moments that come from their ineptitude. However underneath the silliness and black humour we nonetheless see pure greed and ruthlessness. No marvel there is a dystopia taking form beneath the mountain.
Mountainhead could appear to be an argument for fast-turnaround movies, however few writers and administrators may do it with Armstrong’s sharp eye and intelligence, as he entertains us with these heartless, all-too-convincing megalomaniacs. Â
Mountainhead is launched on HBO and Max on 31 Could.
