It can be a lot of fun to see a world you know well get lampooned, which is maybe why I felt ever-so-slightly out-of-the-loop while watching Mountainhead. Jesse Armstrong’s feature directorial debut stars Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman, Ramy Youssef, and Cory Michael Smith as the world’s most powerful and annoying tech-bro clique convening for a weekend retreat in the midst of roiling, worldwide chaos that one of them may or may not be responsible for (and that more than a few of them feel uniquely capable of quelling).
I’ve never worked in tech—except for a few months temping at a search-engine giant that shall remain nameless, from which I stole a ton of pens before unceremoniously quitting—so it was hard for me to tell whether the rapidly paced, Succession-esque dialogue of Mountainhead bore any relationship to the real thing (especially since nobody who was permanently employed at said company spoke to me at my temp job).
So, I turned to some current and former big-tech employees for their thoughts on how the film reflected their industry. Below, find analyses of Mountainhead from some of the people who would know best:
Anonymous tech-world veteran and startup founder:
“Mountainhead felt like somebody had listened to a LOT of All-In podcasts in the creation process. I think it over-rotated on the bro-ness of the guys. Tech moguls may do bro-y stuff, but they don’t have bro-y personalities. They’re still more nerdy than they are bro-y. The “sure, we can run the world” casual confidence is more common amongst venture capitalists than people who actually operate companies.”
Anonymous journalist who has covered tech:
“This whole ‘We can marry a Facebook-like company to AI and it will become superhuman overnight’ thing is ridiculous. Naturally, so is killing the head of the AI company. Tech has too much power, but AI is going to be at least as good as it is bad (for a while, at least). Everyone in the movie is either a doomer or a tech boomer; it’s silly.”
Anonymous big-tech alum:
“Was Jason Schwartzman gay? He should have been. Visibility matters! Ramy’s look was the best because it was the most schlubby. That hit. But someone should have looked absurdly bad, if you asked me, i.e. Sam Altman’s Henleys or Mark Zuckerberg’s current Eastern Bloc-drug-dealer phase. The chat was so slick from the beginning and, in my experience, these guys have a lot more awkward pauses. I would have had more security, both in person (Elon has more security than Trump!) and on their phones. The venue was right, in that rich techies love an expansive breakfast bar that no one eats, so I was happy to see that. The decor was also right; modern-ish and quiet luxury-ish, but not, like, mid-century-modern chic. I also liked that the chief of staff was a woman old enough to be Cory’s mom (that’s the Sheryl Sandberg nod).”