"Mountainhead" HBO Film

   

SPOILER REVIEW ALERT   

   "Mountainhead" is a satirical film about  four tech billionaires (well one nicknamed 'Soup Kitchen' is only a multi-millionaire! It's a very American humour where the zingers, sarcasm and put downs are a mixed bag at best...though they do amplify the sense of detachment from reality, as the amount of food on the bench or table grows as the weekend unfolds, with three seated at a table of food for 50 people!

   'Soup Kitchen' hosts the poker weekend in the snowy mountains of Utah, at his new home called 'Mountainhead.' When they get together, they have a ritual celebrating their estimated individual wealth, in the billions (for 3 of the 4), with four hats/props they swap according to who is richest! One has launched a new AI system TRAAM which is wreaking havoc across the world, as fake videos incite violence, revolution and chaos across the world!

   Jeff's technology, offers a 'reality check' and could save the others company and reputation ,not to mention quelling the violence and his wealth skyrockets as they've gathered, while news rolls in of large scale violence and deaths. He refuses to sell the idea in a way which would benefit the other Tech heads.

   The US President is worried and they discuss the possibility of overseeing a coup to remove him. The EU plan blocking the AI technology as the billionaires shift from the all glass windowed floor to the Games Room below, after the water appears to have been cut off (with bowling alley, table games and rock climbing wall). They jokingly speculate retribution attacks, zoom into a military meeting and continue to check their social media and ponder which parts of the world we could do without! It's comedic tragedy descending into farce as three plot the death of 'Jeff,' the closest they get to 'the conscience' of the group...

   The suggested intervention is, the ability for people to say what's real and not - to stop neighbours shooting one another, riots, assignation of political leaders etc... it seems to get lost along the way, as a business deal!

   It's not a "great" film, it's clunky and doesn't meet my long held conviction -  'good scripts make good films!'  On that score the film blends beautifully tone deaf and dismissive shared humour, depicting the tech heads as detached from reality while considering themselves smarter than everyone else! One clever backdrop, the mentor, 'founder' of the four, Randall (Steve Carell) is unwell and his place in the story begins with him considering any doctor who suggests he can't be cured is "an oaf, a simpleton." 

   I think the constant phone checking and the impotence of their ideas, in the face of an imploding world, leaving them pondering how to profit from it - demonstrates the depravity of the growing wealth gap in the world, so the film has a point, sharing it pretty well, from the creative mind of "Succession!"