Mountainhead review: The tech-bro apocalypse satire we didn’t know we needed

What do you get when you bring together four outrageously wealthy techheads, a snow-covered mountain sanctuary, and a crumbling civilization? A pitch-black, razor-sharp comedy film called Mountainhead, by Succession creator Jesse Armstrong. The movie is now streaming on MAX, and it certainly captures precisely how powerful spurs are leveled into a claustrophobic weekend of billionaires’ arrogance and 21st-century nihilism.

Mountainhead is a surname for Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman, and Cory Michael Smith, and the show unfolds in a manner akin to a parlor play coming from the hands of a Stanford graduate so utterly fed up with Silicon Valley’s morally apathetic vision. The setup feels deceptively simple: it is four men and a luxury lodge set up and waiting for the slow-motion implosion of the self-destruction they engineered. Alongside Armstrong’s vicious dialogue and disturbingly close parallels to real-world tech titans, it left me amused and increasingly aware at the same time.

The plot follows the ridiculously wealthy Venis (Smith), who is the developer of a social media platform that is on the verge of collapsing civilization with its AI launch. His fellow weekenders feature a perpetual frenemy (Youssef) with a chip on her shoulder, a cancer-stricken mentor (Carell), and a self-loathing host worth half a billion (Schwartzman). These people decline deeply – drinking smoothies to hurl slurs at one another while contemplating the possibility of consciousness offshoring to the Cloud, all the while rioters are on the streets below their mountainside fortress.

Armstrong's satire in Mountainhead cuts close to reality

Mountainhead teeters on the edge of horror and satire, serving up a world where dystopia is not only imminent but already firmly entrenched. While the show’s humor certainly has comedic value, it’s visceral. There’s Venis, a social media mogul with the personality of a musky-Zuckerberg hybrid who apathetically responds ‘F**ck,’ to his app’s global breakdown. There’s Jeff, the (un)willing savior of chaos simply because -well, he just doesn’t want to, and Randall, an old-school legacy-obsessed financier whose delusional fascination with the notion of life outliving a recession lingers death's ever-so-close hand.

If these characters sound cartoonishly awful, that’s the point—but Armstrong adds just enough reality to deepen the discomfort. These men aren’t alien. They’re hyperbolic versions of the people responsible for advanced technology, finance, and contemporary discourse. The film goes so far as to depict a scene in which the quartet stab each other as they comically carve the world like a Risk board, showcasing an absurd yet eerily believable moment that encapsulates the film's tension: forcing uncontrollable laughter and flinching at every turn.

Performances that balance biting humor with brutal honesty

Cory Michael Smith is deadpan funny and comically exact with a chilling, surreal narcissism as Venis, and turns him into a very memorable character. Smith’s delivery of lines such as “Everything’s funny and cool!” sounds like a billionaire with an air of odd detachment to them. Ramy Youssef makes Jeff almost sympathetic by almost making him morally problematic, only to strip him of that sympathy, revealing him as possibly the worst character in the group. He pairs well with Schwartzman, who uses his distinct obsession with Jeff’s crises in Carell’s “not quite rich enough” role.

The writing “lifestyle super app” encapsulating outdated business phrases is poorly coined; however, Armstrong’s gift for business writing prevents it from being a slog. Instead, it’s a barrage of app pitch nonsense that highlights modern power structures. No matter if you cringe or laugh, you will always have your attention captivated.

Final verdict

I'll most certainly give this film a 9/10⭐ rating

Mountainhead is sharp, uncomfortable, and at times, wickedly funny. It portrays a world where we are dared to laugh while everything burns, both literally and metaphorically. Jesse Armstrong’s screenplay is overflowing with tech jargon, cynical capitalism, and witty quips that come packaged in a weekend retreat, which serves as a metaphor for our failing global order.

This film is, by design, talkative and abrasive; bound to discomfort viewers seeking more traditional, emotionally grounded content. Those willing to engage with the film’s bleak comedy and unforgiving commentary are in for a wild ride as the film serves as a critique of how the ultra-wealthy have unimaginable control over a society they barely understand and don’t care about.

What stays with you is not only the humor of the film but also its unnerving familiarity. The avatars stand as digital personas of actual tech moguls, and their irresponsibility is alarmingly likely.

Armstrong does not provide solace, or even salvation, because Mountainhead’s purpose is not to comfort – it strives to incite. The work depicts current events engulfed in anxiety, suffocating us, making it profoundly unsettling. It strives to be prescient and a mean-spirited masterpiece. It manages to outwit the audience full of venom. Better watch it, unless it is too hard to digest.