The world hasn’t yet recovered from the blockbuster series Succession. Meanwhile, the show’s creator Jesse Armstrong has moved on to films, making his directing debut with a grim satire about tech billionaires.

Mountainhead, which is out on JioHotstar, is a tract for the times. Written and directed by Armstrong, Mountainhead has characters who breathe a rarefied air that lets them believe that they can run the planet. Spoiler alert: they actually do.

Four very rich men visibly modelled on Silicon Valley luminaries gather at a mountainside retreat for what is meant to be an “intellectual salon”. The house is owned by lifestyle app founder Hugo (Jason Schwartzman), who is worth only $521 million, not as much as his “best buds” Venis (Cory Michael Smith), Randall (Steve Carell) and Jeff (Ramy Youssef).

It’s a “no deals, no meals, no high heels” occasion, Hugo says, one of the many hollow statements made over two days. The world beyond the mansion is spiralling out of control, thanks to artificial intelligence-powered disinformation flowing from Venis’s social media site Traam. As riots rage and countries are pushed to the brink, Venis smirks, while Hugo and Randall debate the possible benefits.

Only Jeff appears to be concerned about the real-world consequences of deepfakery. Or is Jeff’s...