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Mountainhead is a satirical comedy-drama film written and directed by Jesse Armstrong. The HBO film revolves around four billionaire friends as they gather for a secluded weekend retreat at a mountain head villa while the whole world struggles because of major financial turmoil. Mountainhead stars Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman, Cory Michael Smith, and Ramy Youssef. So, if you loved the biting dark comedy, pointed satire, and compelling but unlikable characters in Mountainhead, here are some similar movies you should check out next.

In the Loop (AMC+ & Rent on Prime Video) Credit – BBC Films

In the Loop is a British satirical dark comedy film directed by Armando Iannucci, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, and Tony Roche. Based on the British series The Thick of It, the 2009 film revolves around the fallout that followed after...

Birthe Neumann as Karen Blixen with Thorkild Bjørnvig (Simon Bennebjerg) in The Pact, Bille August’s elegant take on creation and destruction.

Karen Blixen herself, if you take her word for it, had made a deal with the devil in exchange for the power to tell tales. In Bille August’s The Pact (Pagten), co-written with Christian Torpe and based on the memoir by Thorkild Bjørnvig, starring Birthe Neumann as Blixen, opposite Simon Bennebjerg as Bjørnvig, she tests her own devilishness, and yet remains always very human. Blixen’s Seven Gothic Tales and Out Of Africa, plus Sydney Pollack’s film version of the latter with Meryl Streep, Robert Redford, and Klaus Maria Brandauer may float in and out of our memory while watching the machinations of mutual manipulation unfold.

Bille August with Anne-Katrin Titze on Karen Blixen: “Doing this film I was trying to understand how she worked as a storyteller,...

For many of us, the first mental image prompted by the name Karen Blixen is of a radiant Meryl Streep, resplendent in oatmeal linen and undulating safari hat, romantically lit in the tawny Kenyan dusk. If you wish that to remain the case, best to steer clear of “The Pact” — not that Bille August’s flat, unflattering portrait of the older Blixen should be appointment viewing for anyone. Drawn from Danish poet Thorkild Bjørnvig’s memoir of his thorny friendship with, and tutelage under, the older literary icon, this well-dressed midcentury period piece keeps teasing a darker, more perverse take on a familiar story of cross-generational creative mentorship. Yet despite a performance of unnerving severity by Birthe Neumann as the rancorous Blixen, the film remains too polite and light on incident to deliver on that promise.

Written by Danish TV heavyweight Christian Torpe (“Rita”), the screenplay of “The Pact” bristles with quiet but disquieting tensions,...

Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s animated documentary won the best documentary, best editing, best score and best sound design prizes.

Flee made history at the Danish Film Academy Robert Awards, which took place on Saturday (February 5) in Copenhagen, as the first documentary to win all four awards it was nominated for, scooping the best documentary, best editing, best score and best sound design prizes.

Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s animated documentary focuses on a man, on the cusp of marriage to his boyfriend, revealing the secrets of his journey from Afghanistan to Denmark as a child refugee. Last week, the title was...

"This could change everything. I can write without feeling guilty." Juno Films has released the official US trailer for an acclaimed Danish biopic titled The Pact, which originally opened in theaters in Denmark last year. The film examines the intense friendship between Karen Blixen, the Danish author best known for her autobiographical novel "Out of Africa" (written under the pen name "Isak Dinesen") and Thorkild Bjørnvig, a young and promising poet. She offers him a Faustian bargain and promises him stardom if he will obey her unconditionally. What a strange relationship. From director Bille August comes this sterling adaptation of Bjørnvig's bestselling memoir. Birthe Neumann stars as Karen Blixen, joined by Simon Bennebjerg, Nanna Skaarup Voss, Asta Kamma August, Anders Heinrichsen, and Marie Mondrup. This looks like a smart character study of an arrogant woman going mad at the end of her life. Perhaps worth a watch. Here's the official...

Exclusive: Juno Films has claimed North America rights to The Pact, a film from Oscar and Palme d’Or-winning director Bille August, which is based on the true story of Out of Africa author Karen Blixen, planning to release it in U.S. and Canadian theaters in early 2022, followed by a digital release later in the year.

The Pact catches up with Blixen (Birthe Neumann) at age 63, finding her at the pinnacle of her fame and next in line to win the Nobel Prize for literature. It has been 17 years since she gave up her famous farm in Africa, only to return to Denmark with her life in ruins. Devastated by syphilis and having lost the love of her life, she has reinvented herself as a literary sensation. She is an isolated genius, however, until the day she meets talented 30-year-old poet Thorkild Bjørnvig...

Sf Studios and sales banner REinvent have unveiled the trailer for “The Pact,” Bille August’s psychological drama based on real events in the life of Karen Blixen, the Danish author best known for her autobiographical novel “Out of Africa.”

The film depicts Blixen’s tumultuous relationship with Thorkild Bjørnvig, a promising young poet, after she returned from Africa. Birthe Neumann headlines the film as Blixen in her first major dramatic film role since “The Celebration.”

“The Pact” is produced by Sf Studios and Motor with producers Jesper Morthorst and Karin Trolle. Nordic distribution is handled by Sf Studios while REinvent International Sales is selling worldwide rights. The film will be released in cinemas in Denmark on April 15.

Along with “Margrete-Queen of the North” and “The Emigrants,” “The Pact” is one of the thee projects from Sf Studios which will be presented in the Works in Progress section at this...

Berlin-based sales agent M-Appeal has boarded Hella Joof’s comedy “Happy Ending,” starring Birthe Neumann and Kurt Ravn. The director is best known for her 2014 film “All Inclusive,” which was a box-office hit in Denmark with more than 410,000 tickets sold.

The film centers on Helle, who is looking forward to her workaholic husband, Peter’s, retirement, so they can spend some time together. But on his last day at work, he says he is going to become a wine importer and commute between Denmark and France.

“The couple drift apart, and both set out to explore new possibilities, problems and dreams,” according to a statement. “But can you start all over again after 50 years of marriage? And will they be able to cope without each other?”

According to producer Mie Andreasen, the story is based on the experience of the parents of screenwriter Mette Heeno, who after 49 years of marriage,...

There's a lot to celebrate in Danish filmmaker Thomas Vinterberg's intense competition entry about a large family gathering that starts badly and gets much worse.

Filmed in a herky-jerky style that never grows tiresome and deftly mixing off-color humor with arch drama, "The Celebration" (Festen) rarely slows down to let the strong material sink in, but it's virtuoso filmmaking that should garner fans in subsequent festival exposure, with a U.S. art house release an outside possibility.

In a rural hotel in Denmark, an elaborate party and dinner unfolds in honor of Helge (Henning Moritzen), the family patriarch celebrating his 60th birthday with friends and family. Everyone seems to have gotten past the tragic death of one of his two daughters, Linda, whose twin Christian (Ulrich Thomsen) arrives with a shocking agenda as the attention-getting oldest sibling.

At the outset, tension revolves around youngest son Michael Thomas Bo Larsen), a flamboyant jerk who fights continually with his beleaguered wife (Helle Dolleris) and fiendishly needles sluttish sister Helene (Paprika Steen). Known for his drunken meltdowns, Michael boisterously tries to derail Christian when the latter drops a bomb on the black-tie gathering.

With a few drinks in him and in a deadpan delivery, Christian reveals that both he and his dead twin Linda were sexually abused as children by Helge. Known for his jokes, the father squirms uncomfortably and Christian's initial frontal assault is quickly dismissed by Michael and Helene. But Christian's longtime friend, the hotel chef (Bjarne Henriksen), encourages him to go all the way and arranges for the guests' car keys to be hidden, preventing anyone from leaving even if things get unbearably ugly.

They do. Christian accuses Helge of murdering Linda and is hustled out of the hotel by Michael. He returns to damn his mother (Birthe Neumann) for not stopping her husband. Eventually Linda's farewell letter is read by Helene and there's no longer any doubt. Passing out from the enormous amount of wine he's imbibed, Christian has a mystical experience and encounters Linda's ghost, which haunts the hotel.

The film is crowded with ancillary characters and relationships, including Helene's black English-speaking boyfriend (Gbatokai Dakinah) and Christian and Michael's former lovers now working as maids in the hotel. Seemingly headed toward a grim resolution, the film manages an upbeat finale that leaves one curiously unsatisfied, but still bowled over by the daring and well-paced ensemble project with all-around engaging performances.

Festen

(The Celebration)

Nimbus Film APS

CREDITS:

Director--Thomas Vinterberg

Screenwriters--Thomas Vinterberg, Morgens Rukov

Producer--Birgitte Hald

Director of photography--Anthony Dod Mantle

Second camera--Peter Hjorth

Editor--Valdis Oskarsdottir

Sound designer--Morten Holm

CAST:

Christian--Ulrich Thomsen

Helge--Henning Moritzen

Michael--Thomas Bo Larsen

Helene--Paprika Steen

Elsa--Birthe Neumann

Mette--Helle Dolleris

Kim--Bjarne Henriksen

Gbatokai--Gbatokai Dakinah

Color/stereo

Running time -- 105 minutes...