Mountainhead fizzles on take off

Jesse Armstrong is a unique writer/director. He’s worked on a few feature films, like the dark comedy Downhill. But he’s best known as the creator of the successful HBO series Succession. That show ended in 2023, but it remains popular with fans. It centered on a family that was ruthless in business and personal life.

That’s more or less what you see in Mountainhead, his new follow up film released on HBO on Saturday night. It features four dudes who are titans of industry and loosely connected friends that gather at a mountain retreat for the weekend while the world is melting down.

As the world descends into crisis, these four (Steve Carrell, Ramy Youssef, Cory Michael Smith, and Jason Schwartzman) try to figure out how to spin it, control it, and use it to their advantage. All their discussions seem to be centered on how to use the current situation to expand their wealth. But it starts to go off the rails when one of their group (Youssef) starts to get cold feet.

That leaves the other three scrambling for a solution. Things take a dark turn, and it becomes a question of whether they can all survive the night.

This was a highly anticipated new film. Armstrong has a lot of fans, especially those who enjoyed his HBO series. This feels like a similar set up, a drama infused with some dark comedy and a good cast. But can it live up to the billing?

Sadly, it does not. This film isn’t funny and doesn’t click. Despite a strong cast and some potential in the premise, the characters don’t pop and it’s impossible to invest in them or what they’re doing. This is the second dark comedy of the year that seems to put the excesses of the uber-rich in its crosshairs, and both have had mixed results.

This is decidedly darker. The Third Act twists didn’t work for me at all, creating something of an uncomfortable finish to the film. Despite a run time around 108 minutes, it felt like the action dragged badly at times.

I was never much of a fan of Succession, but even those who have been fans of the series didn’t take to the film. This reminds me of some of Armstrong’s other films that have a darker edge and don’t quite come together in the execution. This is a miss on all levels.

Mountainhead is now streaming on Max.

One and a half stars out of five