May 28, 2025 • 13 mins
Strictly Business host Andrew Wallenstein offers a commentary on the new HBO movie “Mountainhead,” from “Succession” creator Jesse Armstrong, comparing the two productions and speaking to the film’s satirical take on AI and the moguls deploying the technology.
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome to another episode of Strictly Business, the podcast in
which we speak with some of the brightest minds working
in the media business today. I'm Andrew Wallenstein with Variety
Intelligence Platform. Imagine a future that may or may not
be too far from now, in which an AI video
generator is capable of cranking out an entire movie, its
(00:28):
script derived from a large language model, fed nothing but
the entire run of the HBO series Succession, and every
article from the past six months written about the reigning
tech titans of our time, Zuckerberg, musk Altman. Maybe a
dash of Peter Teel that may be the best way
to explain Mountainhead, a new movie debuting May thirty first
(00:50):
on HBO from Jesse Armstrong, the creator of Succession, the
critically acclaimed series from the same network. I got a
lot of thoughts to share about this one. Stick around.
(01:13):
Welcome back to Strictly Business, where this week I'm going
deep on the new movie Mountain Head. In stark contrast
to the typically glacial speed with which most movies or
TV are developed, the film was conceived, pitched, and rushed
through production in a matter of months because Armstrong felt
strongly that his story would resonate most reflecting the current
(01:34):
moment in our culture while we're still in it and
does it ever, You don't have to work in Silicon
Valley these days to be exposed to the constant churn
of headlines describing the Frankenstein like potential of a technology
that allows just about anyone to conjure up hyper realistic
images of anything their minds can imagine with lowered barriers
(01:55):
to cost or distribution. But what's more, Mountainhead is being
released at exactly the moment when AI fears must be
kicking into overdrive. Look at what's just transpired in the
past few weeks, starting with Google's release of VO three,
the most sophisticated video generation tool to hit the mass
market to date. If that's not scary enough, Open Ai
(02:17):
just unveiled the partnership with former Apple design guru Johnny
Ive to release new AI power devices. Meanwhile, Meta is
reportedly running into trouble developing its own Lama LM, invoking
fears of what measures the company could take in order
to catch up. How serendipitous for Armstrong then, that his
(02:38):
decision to make Mountainhead a rush job has resulted in
a movie that could not have picked a scarier time
to mine our anxieties about AI and the people with
the power to deploy it in pursuit of profit. But
Mountainhead is also a triumph of timing of the comedic variety,
because while the plot might sound like a twenty first
century spin on nineteen seven and these disaster movies, it
(03:02):
also manages to be uproariously funny. A masterclass in satire
anchored by a quartette of actors capable of delivering lines
with dead pant perfection. Mountainhead is set in an opulent
mansion nestled in the snowy mountains of Utah, where four
billionaire tech moguls have gathered for a few days of
(03:22):
R and R. The timing of their vacation is fortuitous,
as they're fairly isolated from the rest of the world,
which happens to be descending into anarchy at the same time.
What's worse, several of these friends just might be responsible
for this chaos, and as they watch the chaos unfold
from the safe distance of their mobile phones, not even
(03:43):
quality bro time or luxury amenities can keep reality entirely
at bay. As the impending apocalypse turns the heat up
on them. They start to turn on each other.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Guys, is this on every channel? There have been a
number of occurrences since your launch. You and officials are
now openly attributing the recent uptake and ethnic tention to
powerful new generative AI tools unveiled last week on TRAM.
I just want to say, this is not on you venus,
Obviously it's not on me. Why would you even say that.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Your platform is inflamed, vobal situation, weapons, stock piling, some
bank fronts, violence, chaos, and people are dying.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
You're not real and don't explode like that. Head. Don't
explode like that?
Speaker 1 (04:26):
You know how to heads explode. At the center of
the narrative, a Mountainhead is a fictional social network known
as Tram, which has just been supercharged with AI content
generation tools so powerful that engagement on the platform explodes.
But there's an unfortunate side effect of this innovation, too.
Many bad actors start to create incendiary deep fakes, sparking
(04:48):
violence all over the globe. Part of what makes fountain
Head compelling is that as the action unfolds and we
learn more about each character from their actions and what
they say, it sparks for the viewer and internal debate
which of these characters is the most morally repugnant. The
competition is stiff, starting with Hugo played by Jason Schwartzman,
(05:10):
the owner of Mountainhead. Despite the fact he's the laggard
of this foursome because he carried around the shame of
having a fortune in the sub billion dollar range. He
might be the most sympathetic of the bunch were he
clearly not using the whole get together as an excuse
to get any of them to bankroll his new wellness apventure.
(05:30):
And what's come clear in time is he's desperate enough
to do anything to get their validation, let alone their money.
Says a lot about Mountainhead that it hands a veteran
comedic genius like Schwartzman what is easily his best role
since the movie that gave him his breakthrough way back
in nineteen ninety eight, Rushmore. And yet the movie might
(05:51):
belong to the least known of its four lead actors,
Corey Michael Smith, who has handed the juiciest role as Venice,
the CEO of the fiction Tram. He is two hundred
and twenty billion dollar net worth, makes him the richest
of the group. Venice is something of a mashup of
Zuckerberg and Musk, melding the formers move fast and break
(06:12):
things ethos to grow his user base at all costs.
With the latter's robotic ruthlessness. Venice's obscene wealth justifies an
unbridled narcissism that reflects our worst fears of tech moguls.
He repeatedly comments that other people on Earth just aren't
on the same plane of existence with himself or his buddies.
(06:32):
It's fitting for someone who's profiting from manufacturing images that
blur the lines between truth and fiction. He doesn't see
other people as real. But what's interesting here is Armstrong
doesn't right him as just a one dimensional monster. As
the technology he's unleashed greeks havoc. Venice is invested with
just enough self consciousness to be a little horrified by himself,
(06:56):
just not to the point where he could be bothered
to filter his solib selic impulses. If Smith is a
stand in for Zuckerberg, then Steve Carell is something of
a Peter Thield type, an older brother advisor figure who
he learned was Venice's first investor, but Correll's character is
trying to hide a secret from his friends, which is
(07:16):
that he's dying of some unspecified incurable medical condition that
gives him just years to live. Of course, he's too
much of a narcissist to accept that, and he channels
his denial into the belief that tram will eventually evolve
into supporting transhumanism, a technology that will allow his soul
to live forever once he's shuffled his mortal coil, and
(07:40):
that delusion puts him at odds with the last character, Jeff,
played by romy Yusef. Jeff seems to be possibly both
the most conscientious and deplorable character. He seems the most
troubled by the circumstances playing out in the real world,
yet not so troubled that he won't be rushed into
a deal with Venice to sell him his own special
(08:01):
blend of AI, which trams Board believes will help consumers
distinguish the difference between real and fake video. It's like
Jeff has the antidote to the AI poison Venice is
practically killing the world with, but won't release it because
he has overdosed on the toxic masculinity that keeps these
supposed friends, in a constant state of competitive one upmanship, are.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
The smartest men in America. We literally have the resources
to take over the world.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
This ugly death traphouse might have just become humanity's global
HQ boom.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
The President once the speak to us, guys, we could
actually do this. I can handle Leargentina and Paraguay.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
We could probably buy Haiti or Belgium.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Those chocolatey assholes in the mouths of anyone else on earth.
The machinations about global domination would be delusional in enough
to merit them a ticket to the looney bin. But
the sick joke of Mountainhead is that the these characters
are so powerful that they're not entirely delusional. Listening to
them talk about their ability to fix the world as
(09:08):
casually as they would be repairing a car will surely
bring to mind musks many public musings from the recently
concluded Doge phase of his career, in which he convinced
the current president to essentially hand over the keys to
the US government.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
We're going to take a quick break, but when we return,
more on Mountainhead and the inevitable comparisons that will be
made to Succession, and we are backed and I'm talking
about Mountainhead. A very interesting movie coming to HBO May
(09:44):
thirty first, and HBO max at that the extra resonance
mountain Head achieves from being released at the same time
as the world it's trying to reflect is also what
separates it from Succession. Sure, there were flashes of moment
that seemed ripped from the headlines of the media trade
publications in Succession, but it's largely drawn from the exploits
(10:07):
of the Murdochs and Redstones, many of which preceded the
show by some years. Mountainhead isn't a sequel or spin
off to Succession, but it also kind of is not
a sequel in the conventional sense of the word, in
that it doesn't continue the mythology of the Roy family
media empire in any way. But it is a sequel
(10:27):
in the sense that Mountainhead's characters feel like they belong
in the same world. Armstrong could have brought the world
of Succession and mountain Head together in any number of
cute crossovery kind of ways. I really half expected Kendall
Roy to wander into any particular scene. Honestly, Armstrong could
have swapped out Jason Schwartzman's character for Kendall, and this
(10:51):
movie would have held up.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
I've always marveled it the way each installment of Succession
was something of a bottle episode contained to the rooms
of a single building sometimes, but it's a credit to
Armstrong that there's nothing claustrophobic about this. To the contrary,
it gives the action of more coiled powers if the
characters gather steam by bouncing off the walls and each other.
(11:15):
By squeezing the narrative a Mountainhead entirely into one mountain
side mansion. The movie operates by a similar dynamic, so
much so that I honestly think Armstrong could have, maybe
should still put this story on a Broadway stage. But
I don't want to overstate the similarities between the shows either,
because Mountainhead is distinctive in a bunch of key ways.
(11:39):
Succession is more of an actor showcase. The family drama
lends itself to more emotional depth. It tilts more towards
drama than comedy the way fountain Head does. And I
also want to make a distinction between Armstrong's two creations
because fair warning, I don't think every Succession fan is
(11:59):
going to like Mountainhead. Yes, it's situated in the same world,
but there are some tonal differences that Succession fans looking
for a spin off movie might be disappointed by. I
don't want to ruin the movie with a spoiler, but
be ready for the story to take a turn. It's
actually such a departure from this Succession world as to
(12:22):
almost be like crossing over into magical realism. And I
don't think some viewers are going to be ready to
take that leap. It's like success It's like Succession, and
that it's dark and funny at the same time. But
this one just gets darker and darker and funnier and
crazier in a way it just wouldn't make sense for
Succession to do. But that's also the fun of Mountainhead.
(12:45):
It's like watching a car slip into a whole other
gear you didn't know Armstrong could drive. Strangely, though Mountainhead
gets more and more absurd as the story unfolds, it
also captures the precariousness of the moment we as a
societ society find ourselves in today. It conjures up just
the kind of worst case scenarios that come to mind
(13:08):
every time you read about AI or reckless moguls. That's
enough for me for this week. Thanks for listening in.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Thanks for listening, be sure to leave us a review
at Apple Podcasts or Amazon Music. We love to hear
from listeners. Please go to Variety dot com and sign
up for the free weekly Strictly Business newsletter, and don't
forget to tune in next week for another episode of
Strictly Business
Welcome to another episode of Strictly Business, the podcast in
which we speak with some of the brightest minds working
in the media business today. I'm Andrew Wallenstein with Variety
Intelligence Platform. Imagine a future that may or may not
be too far from now, in which an AI video
generator is capable of cranking out an entire movie, its
(00:28):
script derived from a large language model, fed nothing but
the entire run of the HBO series Succession, and every
article from the past six months written about the reigning
tech titans of our time, Zuckerberg, musk Altman. Maybe a
dash of Peter Teel that may be the best way
to explain Mountainhead, a new movie debuting May thirty first
(00:50):
on HBO from Jesse Armstrong, the creator of Succession, the
critically acclaimed series from the same network. I got a
lot of thoughts to share about this one. Stick around.
(01:13):
Welcome back to Strictly Business, where this week I'm going
deep on the new movie Mountain Head. In stark contrast
to the typically glacial speed with which most movies or
TV are developed, the film was conceived, pitched, and rushed
through production in a matter of months because Armstrong felt
strongly that his story would resonate most reflecting the current
(01:34):
moment in our culture while we're still in it and
does it ever, You don't have to work in Silicon
Valley these days to be exposed to the constant churn
of headlines describing the Frankenstein like potential of a technology
that allows just about anyone to conjure up hyper realistic
images of anything their minds can imagine with lowered barriers
(01:55):
to cost or distribution. But what's more, Mountainhead is being
released at exactly the moment when AI fears must be
kicking into overdrive. Look at what's just transpired in the
past few weeks, starting with Google's release of VO three,
the most sophisticated video generation tool to hit the mass
market to date. If that's not scary enough, Open Ai
(02:17):
just unveiled the partnership with former Apple design guru Johnny
Ive to release new AI power devices. Meanwhile, Meta is
reportedly running into trouble developing its own Lama LM, invoking
fears of what measures the company could take in order
to catch up. How serendipitous for Armstrong then, that his
(02:38):
decision to make Mountainhead a rush job has resulted in
a movie that could not have picked a scarier time
to mine our anxieties about AI and the people with
the power to deploy it in pursuit of profit. But
Mountainhead is also a triumph of timing of the comedic variety,
because while the plot might sound like a twenty first
century spin on nineteen seven and these disaster movies, it
(03:02):
also manages to be uproariously funny. A masterclass in satire
anchored by a quartette of actors capable of delivering lines
with dead pant perfection. Mountainhead is set in an opulent
mansion nestled in the snowy mountains of Utah, where four
billionaire tech moguls have gathered for a few days of
(03:22):
R and R. The timing of their vacation is fortuitous,
as they're fairly isolated from the rest of the world,
which happens to be descending into anarchy at the same time.
What's worse, several of these friends just might be responsible
for this chaos, and as they watch the chaos unfold
from the safe distance of their mobile phones, not even
(03:43):
quality bro time or luxury amenities can keep reality entirely
at bay. As the impending apocalypse turns the heat up
on them. They start to turn on each other.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Guys, is this on every channel? There have been a
number of occurrences since your launch. You and officials are
now openly attributing the recent uptake and ethnic tention to
powerful new generative AI tools unveiled last week on TRAM.
I just want to say, this is not on you venus,
Obviously it's not on me. Why would you even say that.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Your platform is inflamed, vobal situation, weapons, stock piling, some
bank fronts, violence, chaos, and people are dying.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
You're not real and don't explode like that. Head. Don't
explode like that?
Speaker 1 (04:26):
You know how to heads explode. At the center of
the narrative, a Mountainhead is a fictional social network known
as Tram, which has just been supercharged with AI content
generation tools so powerful that engagement on the platform explodes.
But there's an unfortunate side effect of this innovation, too.
Many bad actors start to create incendiary deep fakes, sparking
(04:48):
violence all over the globe. Part of what makes fountain
Head compelling is that as the action unfolds and we
learn more about each character from their actions and what
they say, it sparks for the viewer and internal debate
which of these characters is the most morally repugnant. The
competition is stiff, starting with Hugo played by Jason Schwartzman,
(05:10):
the owner of Mountainhead. Despite the fact he's the laggard
of this foursome because he carried around the shame of
having a fortune in the sub billion dollar range. He
might be the most sympathetic of the bunch were he
clearly not using the whole get together as an excuse
to get any of them to bankroll his new wellness apventure.
(05:30):
And what's come clear in time is he's desperate enough
to do anything to get their validation, let alone their money.
Says a lot about Mountainhead that it hands a veteran
comedic genius like Schwartzman what is easily his best role
since the movie that gave him his breakthrough way back
in nineteen ninety eight, Rushmore. And yet the movie might
(05:51):
belong to the least known of its four lead actors,
Corey Michael Smith, who has handed the juiciest role as Venice,
the CEO of the fiction Tram. He is two hundred
and twenty billion dollar net worth, makes him the richest
of the group. Venice is something of a mashup of
Zuckerberg and Musk, melding the formers move fast and break
(06:12):
things ethos to grow his user base at all costs.
With the latter's robotic ruthlessness. Venice's obscene wealth justifies an
unbridled narcissism that reflects our worst fears of tech moguls.
He repeatedly comments that other people on Earth just aren't
on the same plane of existence with himself or his buddies.
(06:32):
It's fitting for someone who's profiting from manufacturing images that
blur the lines between truth and fiction. He doesn't see
other people as real. But what's interesting here is Armstrong
doesn't right him as just a one dimensional monster. As
the technology he's unleashed greeks havoc. Venice is invested with
just enough self consciousness to be a little horrified by himself,
(06:56):
just not to the point where he could be bothered
to filter his solib selic impulses. If Smith is a
stand in for Zuckerberg, then Steve Carell is something of
a Peter Thield type, an older brother advisor figure who
he learned was Venice's first investor, but Correll's character is
trying to hide a secret from his friends, which is
(07:16):
that he's dying of some unspecified incurable medical condition that
gives him just years to live. Of course, he's too
much of a narcissist to accept that, and he channels
his denial into the belief that tram will eventually evolve
into supporting transhumanism, a technology that will allow his soul
to live forever once he's shuffled his mortal coil, and
(07:40):
that delusion puts him at odds with the last character, Jeff,
played by romy Yusef. Jeff seems to be possibly both
the most conscientious and deplorable character. He seems the most
troubled by the circumstances playing out in the real world,
yet not so troubled that he won't be rushed into
a deal with Venice to sell him his own special
(08:01):
blend of AI, which trams Board believes will help consumers
distinguish the difference between real and fake video. It's like
Jeff has the antidote to the AI poison Venice is
practically killing the world with, but won't release it because
he has overdosed on the toxic masculinity that keeps these
supposed friends, in a constant state of competitive one upmanship, are.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
The smartest men in America. We literally have the resources
to take over the world.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
This ugly death traphouse might have just become humanity's global
HQ boom.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
The President once the speak to us, guys, we could
actually do this. I can handle Leargentina and Paraguay.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
We could probably buy Haiti or Belgium.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Those chocolatey assholes in the mouths of anyone else on earth.
The machinations about global domination would be delusional in enough
to merit them a ticket to the looney bin. But
the sick joke of Mountainhead is that the these characters
are so powerful that they're not entirely delusional. Listening to
them talk about their ability to fix the world as
(09:08):
casually as they would be repairing a car will surely
bring to mind musks many public musings from the recently
concluded Doge phase of his career, in which he convinced
the current president to essentially hand over the keys to
the US government.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
We're going to take a quick break, but when we return,
more on Mountainhead and the inevitable comparisons that will be
made to Succession, and we are backed and I'm talking
about Mountainhead. A very interesting movie coming to HBO May
(09:44):
thirty first, and HBO max at that the extra resonance
mountain Head achieves from being released at the same time
as the world it's trying to reflect is also what
separates it from Succession. Sure, there were flashes of moment
that seemed ripped from the headlines of the media trade
publications in Succession, but it's largely drawn from the exploits
(10:07):
of the Murdochs and Redstones, many of which preceded the
show by some years. Mountainhead isn't a sequel or spin
off to Succession, but it also kind of is not
a sequel in the conventional sense of the word, in
that it doesn't continue the mythology of the Roy family
media empire in any way. But it is a sequel
(10:27):
in the sense that Mountainhead's characters feel like they belong
in the same world. Armstrong could have brought the world
of Succession and mountain Head together in any number of
cute crossovery kind of ways. I really half expected Kendall
Roy to wander into any particular scene. Honestly, Armstrong could
have swapped out Jason Schwartzman's character for Kendall, and this
(10:51):
movie would have held up.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
I've always marveled it the way each installment of Succession
was something of a bottle episode contained to the rooms
of a single building sometimes, but it's a credit to
Armstrong that there's nothing claustrophobic about this. To the contrary,
it gives the action of more coiled powers if the
characters gather steam by bouncing off the walls and each other.
(11:15):
By squeezing the narrative a Mountainhead entirely into one mountain
side mansion. The movie operates by a similar dynamic, so
much so that I honestly think Armstrong could have, maybe
should still put this story on a Broadway stage. But
I don't want to overstate the similarities between the shows either,
because Mountainhead is distinctive in a bunch of key ways.
(11:39):
Succession is more of an actor showcase. The family drama
lends itself to more emotional depth. It tilts more towards
drama than comedy the way fountain Head does. And I
also want to make a distinction between Armstrong's two creations
because fair warning, I don't think every Succession fan is
(11:59):
going to like Mountainhead. Yes, it's situated in the same world,
but there are some tonal differences that Succession fans looking
for a spin off movie might be disappointed by. I
don't want to ruin the movie with a spoiler, but
be ready for the story to take a turn. It's
actually such a departure from this Succession world as to
(12:22):
almost be like crossing over into magical realism. And I
don't think some viewers are going to be ready to
take that leap. It's like success It's like Succession, and
that it's dark and funny at the same time. But
this one just gets darker and darker and funnier and
crazier in a way it just wouldn't make sense for
Succession to do. But that's also the fun of Mountainhead.
(12:45):
It's like watching a car slip into a whole other
gear you didn't know Armstrong could drive. Strangely, though Mountainhead
gets more and more absurd as the story unfolds, it
also captures the precariousness of the moment we as a
societ society find ourselves in today. It conjures up just
the kind of worst case scenarios that come to mind
(13:08):
every time you read about AI or reckless moguls. That's
enough for me for this week. Thanks for listening in.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Thanks for listening, be sure to leave us a review
at Apple Podcasts or Amazon Music. We love to hear
from listeners. Please go to Variety dot com and sign
up for the free weekly Strictly Business newsletter, and don't
forget to tune in next week for another episode of
Strictly Business
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