Mountainhead
Max | Release Date (Streaming): May 31, 2025 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
66
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 31 Critic Reviews
Positive:
21
Mixed:
9
Negative:
1

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyMay 30, 2025
Armstrong’s version of tech-bro bantering is a lot more literate and zingy than actual tech-bro bantering would be, otherwise the picture would be rather a bore. After a while, it begins to evanesce, like ice-breath does in the mountain air. Read full review
80
The TelegraphChris BennionMay 30, 2025
Needless to say, Armstrong’s script is an embarrassment of riches when it comes to the zingers, and you could spend an enjoyable evening in the pub debating your favourite gags, but it would all amount to nothing without Mountainhead’s unsparing psychological insight. Read full review
80
TheWrapBob StraussMay 28, 2025
Armstrong crams just about every strategy and justification late capitalism can produce into densely packed dialogue that the film’s core quartet of actors make sound remarkably organic. Read full review
80
EmpireLaura VenningMay 27, 2025
Darkly funny as it descends into farce and ends on a chilling final note, Mountainhead is, unfortunately, truly a film for the 2020s. Just don’t chase it with a doomscrolling session. Read full review
80
BBCCaryn JamesMay 23, 2025
Mountainhead may seem to be an argument for fast-turnaround films, but few writers and directors could do it with Armstrong's sharp eye and intelligence, as he entertains us with these heartless, all-too-convincing megalomaniacs. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMay 23, 2025
Part of the fun of watching Mountainhead, the entertaining first feature film from “Succession” creator Jesse Armstrong, is marveling at the antics of the tech bros who already run a good chunk of the world, and want to run more. Part of the horror is how realistic it all seems. Part of the disappointment is how far it falls into “Three Stooges”-level farce. Read full review
80
The IndependentNick HiltonMay 23, 2025
It takes a decent chunk of its 109-minute runtime to warm-up, and there will be some for whom it is too merciless, but Mountainhead is an exquisite modern satire. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawMay 23, 2025
More than any comedy or even film I’ve seen recently, this is movie driven by the line-by-line need for fierce, nasty, funny punched-up stuff in the dialogue, and narrative arcs and character development aren’t the point. But as with Succession, this does a really good job of persuading you that, yes, this is what our overlords are really like. Read full review
75
The Associated PressJake CoyleMay 29, 2025
Mountainhead adheres to the tradition of the HBO movie; it’s lean, topical and a fine platform for its actors. Read full review
75
ConsequenceLiz Shannon MillerMay 23, 2025
Armstrong’s dialogue flows like no one else’s, but there’s something just a little bit unbearable about listening to stupid people talk like they’re smart, and Armstrong doesn’t pull away from that aspect. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineChris BarsantiMay 23, 2025
If there’s a moral here, it might be that the only thing worse than a competitive billionaire is a bored one. Read full review
70
Next Best PictureNadia DalimonteMar 25, 2026
In a heightened depiction of the hyper-privileged, “Succession” drew parallels to the real world. The balance between absurdity and glimmers of sympathy in such morally corrupt characters made the show an irresistible watch. A feature-length doom scroll from the perspective of out-of-touch, not-so-sympathetic billionaires is a little harder to digest. Read full review
70
VarietyAlison HermanJun 3, 2025
The ambition of Mountainhead is much lower than diagnosing the underlying dysfunction of the privileged few who run the world, settling for putting their dysfunction on caustically hilarious display. Read full review
70
Rolling StoneDavid FearJun 2, 2025
Imagine a feature-length episode of Succession that treated the final season’s villain, GoJo CEO Lukas Matsson, as its main character and then multiplied him by four, and you’d have something like Mountainhead, Jesse Armstrong‘s caustic, corrosive satire of Silicon Valley mega-royalty run amuck. Read full review
70
Paste MagazineJim VorelJun 2, 2025
Mountainhead promises and delivers a takedown of those tech bros who now rule our society, although there are few genuinely schadenfreude-derived smiles to be had in the exercise. Read full review
70
The New York TimesJames PoniewozikJun 2, 2025
Still, what Mountainhead lacks in depth, it makes up for in satirical daring. Armstrong’s hallmarks are present: a brutal sense of interpersonal power dynamics, a flair for creative profanity, an abiding belief that the worst people will succeed. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesRobert LloydJun 2, 2025
In some ways, “Mountainhead” (rhymes with “Fountainhead”) feels as much a public service as an entertainment. So thanks for that, Jesse Armstrong. When, in the farcical, action-oriented second half, some attempt to execute a … plot, they bumble and argue and push each other to the front. It is an old kind of movie comedy, and works pretty much as intended. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckMay 23, 2025
It’s certainly entertaining enough while you’re watching it, thanks to the expert performances of its four lead actors, but it’s unlikely to make as much of an impact in the cultural zeitgeist. Read full review
68
The Daily BeastNick SchagerMay 23, 2025
Prescient about the dangers posed by AI and, more pressingly, the cutthroat, avaricious, and egotistical madmen who wield it, the film is an incisive portrait of 21st-century villainy, if ultimately a satire that can’t quite locate the funny in the horror.” Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubTim GriersonMay 23, 2025
A wry smackdown of four insanely rich bros hanging out at a gaudy estate in the Utah mountains, the movie generates a decent amount of laughs, but it’s best when Armstrong puts satire aside for rage, seething at the tech kingpins destroying our society to increase their profits. Read full review
63
Washington PostTy BurrJun 2, 2025
It’s a comedy, and a brutally dark one, that draws blood and appalled laughter for two-thirds of its running time before jumping the shark in the final stretch. Once again, a brilliant TV writer finds the compact format of a two-hour movie more challenging than expected. Read full review
60
Vanity FairRichard LawsonMay 30, 2025
Maybe the few moments when Mountainhead does take on a chilling relevance—when it seems to pick at something nightmarishly real—are enough to justify the sillier stuff. And, we must sadly admit, that silly stuff may not actually be that silly. Read full review
60
Wall Street JournalJohn AndersonMay 30, 2025
Mountainhead teeters on a precipice of dramatic irony and intentions. Read full review
60
TimeJudy BermanMay 23, 2025
It’s not that Armstrong is wrong about the targets of his mockery. He just doesn’t seem to have much more insight into them than the average extremely online observer who’s spent years despairing over the same headlines. Read full review
60
ColliderShaina WeatherheadMay 23, 2025
If you come solely for the comedic stylings of four powerhouse actors, Mountainhead will certainly win you over if you don't take it too seriously. But should you expect a scathing takedown of Big Tech's best and brightest, the movie will act largely as a reminder that watching a bunch of rich guys spout off ignorant crap inevitably gets old and adds nothing to the conversation. Read full review
58
IndieWireChristian ZilkoMay 23, 2025
While “Succession” was all about delusion, with the Roy children cluelessly thinking the family business needed them while everyone maneuvered around their childish stunts, Mountainhead is all about the cruel intentionality of men who actively choose to burn down our world and just might have the competence to do it. Read full review
50
IGNSiddhant AdlakhaJun 5, 2025
It’s morally upstanding but dramatically dull, without any of the allure or excitement that made Armstrong’s Succession series such a smashing success. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)Alison WillmoreJun 1, 2025
The film is a dead-on skewering of the high-on-their-own supply megalomania that now afflicts so many members of the techno oligarchy, who unfortunately also control the levers of the world. I found it incredibly unpleasant to watch, in a way that made me think about comedy’s limitations as a critique of power when its targets are already more awful and more ridiculous than any fictional version. Read full review
50
Screen RantAlex HarrisonMay 30, 2025
The actors inhabit these characters well, but they don't have the benefit of juxtaposition with normality to really put their work in context. Read full review
40
The TimesKevin MaherMay 23, 2025
It has its moments, mostly in the initial set-up. And Armstrong still lands a few zingers. Read full review
38
Chicago TribuneNina MetzMay 29, 2025
Mountainhead is a talky movie and I tend to like talky movies. But at some point in the nearly two-hour running time, it just becomes boring. Read full review
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