HBO tried to slide in at the end of the Emmy consideration window with an original film from Succession creator Jesse Armstrong, making his feature debut. they even managed to get Eli Shiff back to do the audio description, after he narrated Succession. So, even for us, it is supposed to strike the nostalgic chord, and make us feel like this is Succession, and aren’t we so glad it came back? Much like how Succession seemed to take a certain media mogul family to task, without naming them directly, this aims at the ultra rich at a time when the oligarchy is taking over our real world. Four wealthy men meet at a giant mansion called Mountainhead, and try and navigate their own silly disagreements while the decisions they make have real world consequences. the world around them is on fire, and they think it might be the best thing for them.

Our four rich assholes are played by Steve Carell (sort of the wiser older billionaire who is wrestling with his own mortality), Jason Schwartzman (who is referred to by a derogatory nickname the whole film for being the poorest billionaire of the quartet), Rami Yousef (playing the one billionaire who has a shrivel of a soul left), and Cory Michael Smith (who is likely a take on Elon). The reason this film doesn’t work, despite the talent involved, is that Jesse seems to not understand what made Succession work. These four all have relatively the same ideas, so it is like having a whole movie where just the Roy kids are talking a lot about things without ever seemingly having much to say. they muse on the power they have, and various ways to wield it to destruct, or to reconstruct in their image. Succession worked because it always treated the Roy children as being varying levels of incompetent, which is why the show had such a hard time finding a person to succeed Logan. ultimately, the show didn’t go with a Roy kid, and it dodged it because Armstrong knew he had spent four seasons making them out to be spoiled and entitled tools. Here, we only have the tools, and no one ever comes in to check them. there is no Logan Roy that worked hard to get where he is, and looks down at the privilege that has made his kids soft, or even James Cromwell’s uncle who just abhors the entire concept of wealth. these four are too close in personality, which is a shame. there are hints that if this was a series, we could pull them apart more, but in short form, Armstrong isn’t sure how to do that. The easiest solution would have been the clear age gap between Carell and his co-stars. they could look at the world from their youthful billionaire perspectives, while he reflects on it having lived and learned. Instead, he’s played more as a midlife crisis in perpetuity, ignoring the eventuality of death, and exploring the possibility of not. If he can upload himself to the cloud, he will. He surrounds himself with these younger men, clearly, to keep him away from the idea that time is less on his side.

Carell isn’t even that old either. he’s 62, but older than Schwartzman and yousef, who are the next oldest at 44 each. It is enough for him to come across with a different perspective, but he’d much rather get them to share his, or join in on theirs. Nothing is ever checked, and it ends up being two hours of the least interesting parts of Succession. This movie needed a Logan Roy.

The audio description is fine. there really isn’t much that happens, as there are mostly only four men for the duration of the film, and they’re in one location, over a short span of time. So, describing the location that never changes, or the outfits, gets done, and eventually this just supports the choices the actors make. It isn’t a film that lends itself to a lot of description, because like Succession, it is dialogue heavy.

Parts of this are clever, but it seems to go in circles at times, and it can’t really hold up around a few jokes, or stolen moments. This shows Jesse Armstrong does one thing, but it also isn’t a thing he can keep repeating over and over. If he wants to keep creating, he has to find a way to diversify his portfolio. Perhaps one of the four characters he wrote could advise him on how to do that. Or, maybe listening to people like that is the problem?

Rotten: Final Grade: 56/100