Jesse Armstrong, the father of the cult series succession, returns with a new project: Mountainhead, a satirical bomb that dares to look at the core of decadence, apathy and banality of 1% richest in humanity. With: Steve Carell as a self -sufficient billionaire in the middle of a global crisis. But don’t worry, the snowmobiles still work.
Welcome to a world in which four billionaires of technology flee from reality by taking refuge in a luxurious mountain refuge, before reality is violently insinuating themselves from their window, literally and metaphorically. Mountain headthe last original HBO film, previewed on May 31 on Max, presents a thematic succession Successionsbut with a slightly more apocalyptic touch.
The Mountainhead film is directed and co-scored by Jesse Armstrong, an author who already has Succession He brilliantly painted the image of empires built on cynicism and emotional void. This time, the spirit of the time is even stronger: four friends, who together have more money than 60 percent of the world population, gather for a holiday on the snow, a holiday during which the global order begins to disintegrate. But who would worry? You play poker, the whiskey flows to rivers, the ego is on the stars.
A cast that loudly asks for gold
Steve Carell plays Bill, the clan leader, partly Mark Zuckerberg, partly Logan Roy, in part the male version of Gwyneth Paltrow with the obsession with biohacking. Jason Schwartzman join him in the role of the technological Buddhist, Cory Michael Smith (known by the series Gotham) In the role of a silently manipulator visionary and Ramy Youssef as the team’s younger billionaire, still morally fractured.
Schwartzman’s character occasionally cites Nietzsche, then asks that they prepare for him bone broth blended. Yousef, however, is constantly looking for a signal, not for his mobile phone, but for his inner compass. The irony is as dense as the snow in Colorado, where the film was shot for the most part.
Wealth as a spiritual emptiness
Once again Armstrong is not afraid of the moral complexity of his characters. None of them is a caricatting of the bad guys, but nobody is not really good. And it is precisely this gray area that gives the film soul. During a game of poker, it is discovered that one of them may have triggered a chain reaction that caused global markets to collapse. Someone else finds the rather funny thing. The third is to evaluate how to transform the situation into a NFT.
Mountainhead is not linear, but fragmented: Armstrong uses techniques of postmodern narrative, including non -linear assembly, sudden jumps in the future and even moments in which the characters seem aware of their fiction. It is a metaphor for the isolation of an elite that can afford to ignore the collapse of the world. Not only literally, but also narratively.
Production
The producers of the film are David Bernad (The white lotus), Will Ferrell (yes, that Will Ferrell) and Adam McKay, with whom Armstrong had previously worked Successions. McKay’s influence is evident: from visual dynamism to sharp, almost documentary criticism.
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The film was shot in the winter Colorado and the scenography was curated by Eva Stewart (the miserable, The king’s speech), which recreated the frozen luxury with the precision of a bond lair. Every detail shouts: “Here lives a man who can afford not to understand the world”.
Why will this movie be important?
HBO already has Succession It turned out to be a place to express a sophisticated but accessible criticism of capitalist dystopia. Mountain head This series continues and adds a dimension of collective responsibility and the question: if the world is really on fire, who holds the lighter in hand?
Once released on May 31, the film will be expected to arouse a wave of discussions, from Twitter (sorry, XA) to the academic world. Some press bodies have already talked about internal previews, in which it was heard: “It is as if ‘Don’t look up’ and ‘The menu’ had had an illegitimate son who was in therapy with Armando Iannucci”.
Conclusion:
Mountain head It is a film about time and time: on the present that pretends to be the future and on the future that we most likely are already losing. In a world where some have everything and others do not even have hot socks, Armstrong shows that the difference is not only in the means, but in perspective. And although the film is imbued with wit, behind a cold truth is hidden: the rich will survive winter. But will they realize it’s there? Watch it on Max!
