Mountainhead

This movie is basically four rich guys talking in a fancy mountain house - that's it. And weirdly... I really liked it. At first I thought it was gonna be boring, but after 20 minutes I was fully in.

The characters are so over-the-top but also weirdly real. You really feel how disconnected they are from normal people. The dialogues are smart but not too heavy, and some moments are actually really funny in a dark way.

Souper was my favorite - trying so hard to be a billionaire with a meditation app, but clearly lost inside. The tension between the characters is always there, like something bad could happen anytime, but it never turns into a cliché.

There's no action, no music really, not much going on visually, but it still keeps you watching. It's just... different. And in a good way.

If you liked Succession or enjoy dark comedy with smart dialogue, give this one a shot. I didn't expect to like it this much.

Bonus points for making me laugh and feel a little uncomfortable at the same time.

This movie is masterfully done. The problem is that very, very few people in general can relate to it.

It's billed as a comedy, and it is, but not in the form of jokes or slapstick, but in mocking. The characters are a caricature of tech founders, how they act, talk, etc. And they nailed it absolutely. The underlying theme stitched throughout is how Godlike and smart these people feel they are, while in actuality unable to do even simple tasks.

I've had the displeasure of having known two wealthy tech founders, and every single line and situation reminded me of them, only slightly more absurd of course.

I'm rating it high because I think they absolutely captured the mindset and what a joke they are at face value. But it dawned on me that it's more like an inside joke than something to release a movie about.

They're all intentionally insufferable, and I was happy for it to be over. I laughed once ('suddenly'). And though some of their behaviour is outlandish, they're not all that far-fetched when you look at the behaviour of someone like Musk, which is depressing, But I appreciated that we got a critique of the new tech overlord mindset so quickly after their collaborative inauguration with Trump. It's the kind of fast responsive filmmaking that we got at the start of covid and lockdowns. We shouldn't only have a diet of movies that have been years in development and don't reflect the present day.

"Mountainhead" is the kind of film that clearly could have been something special. The premise carries the weight of mystery and psychological depth, and you can sense that somewhere in there, buried beneath the missteps, is a brilliant story struggling to surface. Unfortunately, what we get instead is a film riddled with mediocre dialogue, undercooked ideas, and character choices that slide from naive into outright dumb.

The central theme had potential to explore something meaningful - maybe a descent into obsession or isolation - but it's hard to stay invested when the script constantly undercuts its own gravity. The male characters are frustratingly unrealistic: wealthy yet clueless to a degree that breaks immersion. Their actions, supposedly driven by ambition or fear, feel more like the product of lazy writing than believable motivation.

The cinematography and atmosphere hint at what the film could have been under stronger direction - moments of eerie tension and visual style do appear. But they're fleeting, drowned out by the clunky pacing and lack of coherence. It's a shame, really, because the bones of a great story are here. They're just never given a chance to shine.

"Mountainhead" isn't unwatchable, but it's a textbook case of wasted potential.

I thought the movie was great. I don't understand the frequency of negative reviews. Maybe it's the common man's denial of understanding that, in the minds of billionaires, the middle class is as relevant as cockroaches. Or maybe the negative reviews are the result of sabotage by the AI of some billionaire who doesn't want such true representations of his class in a movie.

Another aspect to consider is that the film is, above all, a warning to the common man and the paths that capitalism is taking our lives from now on. I'm still reflecting on the impacts of what I saw and it reminded me a bit of Black Mirror. If you didn't like the film, don't worry. We're already in it in real life.

Y dear middle class citizen, be very afraid.