Ahead of its premiere next week on May 31, the Mountainhead reviews for HBO’s upcoming comedy-drama movie have officially been revealed. Led by Emmy nominee Steve Carell (The Office, The Patient) as Randall, the story centers around “a group of billionaire friends get together against the backdrop of a rolling international crisis.”
The TV movie hails from acclaimed series creator Jesse Armstrong, who served as the creator on the award-winning family drama show Succession. Armstrong’s feature directorial debut is currently receiving mixed reviews from critics, with some praising the main cast’s “expert performances.” Since both projects deal with the uber-rich, most of the comedy’s reviews inevitably compared Mountainhead to Armstrong’s work on Succession.
What are the Mountainhead reviews saying about the Steve Carell HBO movie?
According to Bob Strauss of TheWrap, “Mountainhead plays more like oligarch burlesque, but although the movie’s central roles are 2-D representations of real-life moguls (and attitudes) that we’re all learning to fear, it doesn’t mean they aren’t richly written.”
The Hollywood Reporter‘s Frank Scheck and Collider‘s Shaina Weatherhead also stressed that the main cast was the clear saving grace of the movie. “It’s certainly entertaining enough while you’re watching it, thanks to the expert performances of its four lead actors,” Scheck wrote. “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,” Weatherhead added.
Meanwhile, Kevin Maher of Times (UK) expressed his disappointment over the story’s “lack of emotional complexity,” giving the movie one of its lowest scores with a 2 out of 5 rating. “The constant toxicity is wearisome, the characters veer from utterly repellent to stupidly cartoonish, and there’s not a whiff of the Shakespearean grandeur or emotional complexity that defined Succession,” he said.
The HBO original movie is written and directed by Armstrong. The cast is also led by Ramy Youssef (Ramy, Poor Things) as Jeff, Jason Schwartzman (Bored to Death) as Hugo Van Yalk, and Cory Michael Smith (Saturday Night, May December) as Venis. Additional supporting cast includes Hadley Robinson as Hester, Andy Daly as Casper, Ali Kinkade as Berry, Daniel Oreskes as Dr. Phipps, David Thompson as Leo, Amie MacKenzie as Janine, and Ava Kostia as Paula. In addition, he is also executive producing alongside Frank Rich, Lucy Prebble, Jon Brown, Tony Roche, Will Tracy, Mark Mylod, and Jill Footlick.
