The 2025 drama Mountainhead, left me cold. (Pun Intended.) I don’t get this one and I’ve watched it twice. Rambling technospeak and allusions of grandeur left me wondering what the heck I just watched. I am a huge Steve Carell fan. He sold himself to me as an actor outside of The Office.
1%
Writer/director Jesse Armstrong having a sly, or not so sly, dig at the world’s 1% is reflected here. I think. The small contingent of four techno rich elitists working deals amid world disaster is spot on. The new regime of the USA is indeed doing their own version of non-technocrats fiddling while Rome burns.
*It can be argued rather successfully that the new leader of the once free world has surpassed Nero here. Bashing about the white house like a drunken bull in a china shop, creating havoc and mayhem with equal aplomb. He is not fiddling, but playing a different type of tune, one using an entire orchestra.*
Armstrong has taken the small group of vapid, self obsessed business men and given them free reign. Mountainhead may not be about the 1% or even about our new government. If it is not, however, it should be.
The story
Four equally self promoting techo billionaires reunite. Their “get together” takes place at a mountaintop mansion that Goldfinger would be envious of. The men are separated from the real world except for the internet and a mixture of fake and real news. These self made, tech obsessed dictators soon turn on one of their own.
The main cast
Jason Schwartzman is Souper.
Cory Michael Smith is Venis.
Ramy Youssef is Jeff.
Verbally overwhelming
Mountainhead is overwhelmingly verbal. Despite the set being this lavish mansion with everything from a sauna to an outside pool, it is too intimate. The film could have been a stage play. It certainly feels like one, claustrophobic and exceedingly verbal.
What works
Mountainhead looks brilliant. The set pieces, the mansion itself, all shine like a new penny. However, these things are not enough to make this overly intellectual approach to storytelling work.
Until the men turn on one of their clan, I had high hopes for the story. I was wondering if this was an obscure version of the four horsemen. This was ruled out though after they decide to murder one of their own.
The Verdict
Mountainhead earns a shaky 2.5 stars. This one came close to earning 0 stars. I can forgive muddled messages, or even mixed metaphors. But boring me is unforgivable. I allowed the score as I may just not be clever enough to get this one.
The film is streaming on Max. Head on over and see what you think of it.
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