Jesse Armstrong’s Mountainhead Satirizes Global Tech Billionaires

Jesse Armstrong, known for creating HBO's Succession, makes his feature film directorial debut with Mountainhead, a sharp and timely satire on tech billionaires. The film centers on a weekend poker gathering at the Mountainhead estate, where four ultra-wealthy men, including a social media mogul and an AI genius, confront the societal chaos their technologies have helped ignite. Featuring a cast led by Jason Schwartzman, Cory Michael Smith, Ramy Youssef, and Steve Carell, the film explores themes of power, detachment, and the bleak realities of the contemporary elite, who wield immense influence yet lack empathy. Critics note the movie's gallows humor and incisive critique of tech oligarchs, though some find its characters less relatable than those in Armstrong's previous work. Mountainhead maintains stylistic ties to Succession, with a similar cool aesthetic, biting dialogue, and a score by Nicholas Britell, but shifts focus to the modern tech plutocracy. Overall, the film offers a darkly comedic yet sobering look at the disconnectedness and destructive potential of today's richest individuals.