Jesse Armstrong, the father of the cult series Succession, returns with a new project – Mountainhead, a satirical bombshell that dares to look into the core of decadence, apathy and banality of the richest 1% of humanity. Starring: Steve Carell as a self-sufficient billionaire in the midst of a global meltdown – but don't worry, the snowmobiles still work.
Welcome to a world where four tech billionaires escape reality to a luxurious mountain retreat before that reality violently sneaks through their window - literally and metaphorically. Mountainhead, HBO's latest original film, premiering May 31st on Max, presents a thematic succession Successions, but with a slightly more apocalyptic twist.
The film Mountainhead is directed and co-written by Jesse Armstrong, an author who has already Succession brilliantly painted the image of empires built on cynicism and emotional emptiness. This time, he hits even harder with the zeitgeist: four friends, who together have more money than 60 percent of the world's population, gather for a snowy getaway - a getaway during which the global order begins to unravel. But who cares? The poker is on, the whiskey is flowing, the ego is flourishing.
A cast that's just crying out for gold
Steve Carell plays Bill, the leader of the clan who is part Mark Zuckerberg, part Logan Roy, and part male Gwyneth Paltrow obsessed with biohacking. He is joined by Jason Schwartzman as a tech-savvy Buddhist, Cory Michael Smith (known for the series Gotham) as a quietly manipulative visionary and Ramy Youssef as the youngest, still morally fractured billionaire in the team.
Schwartzman's character occasionally quotes Nietzsche, then demands that they prepare him a bone broth smoothie. Youssef, however, is constantly searching for a signal – not for his cell phone, but for his inner compass. The irony is as thick as the snow in Colorado, where the film was mostly shot.
Wealth as a spiritual emptiness
Armstrong is once again not afraid of the moral complexity of his characters. None of them are caricatured villains – but none are genuinely good either. It is this gray area that gives the film its soul. During a game of poker, it is revealed that one of them may have set off a chain reaction that has crashed global markets. Another finds it quite amusing. A third considers how to turn the situation into an NFT.
Mountainhead is not linear, but fragmented – Armstrong uses techniques from postmodern narrative, including non-linear editing, sudden jumps into the future, and even moments where characters seem aware of their own fiction. It is a metaphor for the isolation of an elite who can afford to ignore the collapse of the world. Not just literally, but also narratively.
Production
The film's producers are David Bernad (The White Lotus), Will Ferrell (yes, that Will Ferrell), and Adam McKay, with whom Armstrong had previously worked on SuccessionsMcKay's influence is evident – from the visual dynamism to the sharp, almost documentary criticism.
The film was shot in wintry Colorado, and the set design was by Eva Stewart (Les Miserables, The King's Speech), who built the frozen opulence with the precision of a Bond lair. Every detail screams: "Here lives a man who can afford not to understand the world."
Why will this film be important?
HBO has already Succession proved to be a home for a sophisticated yet accessible critique of capitalist dystopia. Mountainhead continues this series and adds a dimension of collective responsibility – and the question: if the world is really on fire, who holds the lighter?
The film is expected to spark a wave of debate when it is released on May 31st, from Twitter (sorry, X) to academia. Some media outlets are already reporting on internal previews, where one person was heard saying: "It's like 'Don't Look Up' and 'The Menu' had a love child who was in therapy with Armando Iannucci."
Conclusion:
Mountainhead is a film of and about time – about a present that pretends to be the future, and a future that we are probably already missing. In a world where some have everything and others don’t even have warm socks, Armstrong shows that the difference is not just in means – it’s in perspective. And while the film is full of wit, behind it lies a cold truth: the rich will survive the winter. But will they even notice that it has happened? Watch it on MAX!
