Directed By Jesse Armstrong

Starring – Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman, Cory Michael Smith

The Plot – A group of billionaire friends get together against the backdrop of a rolling international crisis.

Rated TV-MA for adult language and scenes involving intended violence

Mountainhead | Official Trailer | Max

POSITIVES

You can call this satire all you want, but there’s always been a feeling within that this is truly how rich people act in the company of one another, and their selfish audacity exudes itself to some pretty bitter comedy throughout the duration that at least keeps the effectively entices one to stay patient within the duration of the engagement. Considering you have such comic heavyweights such as Carell, Schwartzman and Rami Youssef involved, it’s no surprise that the film leans heavily into the twisted humor, in order to paint such an unnerving disconnect in these characters with the rest of humanity, and while the situations that they bleakly paint involve so much suffering to others, I never had issue with believing that careless people could concoct something so inconsiderate, and perhaps my consistent laughter reflected the realities of living in a world where these kinds of monsters definitely walk among us. Beyond the humor, the fabulous foursome also do solid work among their respective portrayals, with each of them exuding something integral to the foundation of this group dynamic that feels lived-in with rivalry and remorselessness. Cory Michael Smith is the torch stealer for me personally, as the group’s richest elitist, commanding a coldly calculating demeanor that, for better or worse, represents the manifestation of greed, in all of its lack of empathy. Similar praise goes to Carell and Schwartzman, with the former feeling like the manipulative ringleader towards the latter, which allows each of them a darker desirability to capitalizing on assets, regardless of who or how it hurts. Youssef is probably the only character who I even remotely related towards, as his impeccable comedic timing is only matched by the increments of compassion that serve as the eyes and ears of his friends, allowing Rami the opportunity to delve into far more dramatic territory than we’re used to seeing from the accomplished stage comedian. The production designs of this single stage setting also inscribe a lot of meaningful merit to the isolated captivity zeroed in on in the film’s plot, with flourishing upper class elegance detailed in every atmospherically defining frame. Occasionally, the group does migrate outside to blustery mountainsides, but when the action remains inside, everything from luminated bowling alleys, to endless spreads of food intoxicate us temporarily with champagne wishes and caviar dreams, and considering deception eventually becomes afoot within a group of billionaires forced to spend the night together under one roof, the space allowance to this prestigious mansion offers them ample opportunity in distanced proximity to elude one another, making it feel like a character of its own within the movie’s limited ensemble. Wrapping up the pleasantries, the film also contains another genre-bending unique personality of a score from Nicholas Britell, who Armstrong has borrowed from the TV show that both of them work on; “Succession”. Britell’s themes here elicit a catchy blend of classical orchestra and hip-hop rhythms to impeccably mirror the elasticity within the script’s many heavy topics, brandishing a distinct duality in tone that the music crafts to paint a dark and albeit sinister side to these characters’ intentions, and Britell continues to prove how much better any project is with his mesmerizing work attached.

NEGATIVES

My praises for the film end there, however, as I found “Mountainhead” to be an excruciatingly dull exercise in endless futility, with an alienating script that takes ample opportunity to distance any kind of connection with even an accidental audience who might find something compelling about it. Have you ever watched a foreign film without subtitles? That’s the realities of what’s transpiring among a group of upper class snobs with very little humanity distinguished between them, all with rich talk vocabulary that I had difficulty understanding, even with subtitles to assist my experience. It isn’t impossible to care about wealthy characters in a movie if they either eventually meet devastation, or at least grow to become a better person by film’s end, but the film serves as only an opportunity to constantly flaunt how much better they have it than those who are quite literally suffering on TV news briefings lingering in the distance of their high stakes poker night, with little in the way of palpable drama or tension to warrant justification for the nearly two hour investment. The first half is simply just the movie establishing each of their decorated portfolios, with only incremental instances towards legitimate character development, and while the superior second half does eventually set up inevitable conflict in the air of one of them being a determined deceiver to the others, it executes it in the most painfully dull and superfluous manner, resulting in a momentum-crushing finale that frustrated me twice as much as any opportunity to witness each of them live through such lavish lifestyles, after nearly saving it a pre-conceived paranoia in their various unimportant dilemmas. Because the film spends a majority of its time subtly conveying the question to the audience ‘How much can the rich get away with?’, its lack of commitment towards pursuing such a question results in such overwhelming disappointment that periodically taps into social commentary, without emitting something meaningful for the conversation, and it only echoes what we as a society have known for a lifetime, which is rich people live a privileged and mostly undisturbed life. What a shocking revelation. As for technical components, the mockumentary style presentation for the film, involving abrupt zoom ins and handheld camera work is distracting, to say the least, especially with the movie’s opening act utilizing this gimmick far more abrasively than the rest of the film. I’m not someone who is necessarily against mockumentary stylings if it serves a purpose to the personality elicited within the film, however the film feels most focused and undisturbed when it eventually evolves from this unique gimmick, allowing far more climatic emphasis in the dialogue of the characters, especially during isolated perspective angles that doesn’t run away from them mid sentence to focus on someone who isn’t even speaking. Finally, if everything I’ve told you doesn’t inspire you to stay far away from it, consider that even Armstrong, who is currently the hottest director working in TV, doesn’t come out unscathed from the proceedings, proving that the transition from TV to cinema isn’t always as seamless as condensing a long-form story to screen. Everything from the razor thin characterization to the movie’s pacing crafts a foundational disconnect to audience interpretation, made worse by the movie’s episodic drama, which feels every bit repetitive and parked in place as some of even the greatest TV shows that I’ve ever personally experienced. If you told me “Mountainhead” initially began as a series before being reconverted to a feature length narrative, I would undoubtedly believe it, as the film lives and dies by the same structural rhythms that Armstrong exudes in his incredible TV series, yet the kind that can’t pay this story off accordingly with elevated momentum and inconsistent focus to match the stakes that the movie spends an hour defining, leaving this feeling like one big missed opportunity for Armstrong’s talents that inevitably take his stock down a step, as a consequence.

OVERALL
“Mountainhead” satirically does represent art imitating life, with four tech billionaires scoffing off societal consequences, as a result of their selfishly audacious actions, but it never materializes into anything meaningful in discussion, nor entertaining in spectacle, for audiences expecting the same lightning in a bottle from Jesse Armstrong’s impeccable work on TV’s “Succession”. Despite energetically entrancing work from the four leads, as well as intoxicating production values, the script outsources compelling drama in the smallest of increments, without anything in the way of layered characters or elaborate discussions to articulate humanity in the confines of this upper class toxicity, only cementing the idea that the rich live and thrive by their own rules, and there’s nothing that any of us can do about it.

My Grade: 5.4 or D