Money, narcissism and shaky morals

Mutually bloody heroes, and in principle friends and close associates, in their tirades and bursty dialogue exchanges in film On top (Mountainhead) will mention Marcus Aurelius on several occasions, and these words are attributed to him: "I am always fascinated by the thought that we all love ourselves more than other people, while, on the other hand, we care more about the opinions of others about us than our own." And just like that, the four actors of this full-length (act) accomplishments, willy-nilly, they are reflected in each other, and in those reflections all four see more or less the same reflection, that is, they primarily see a bunch of shortcomings that, paradoxically, attract each other and pull them into a toxic amalgam of hatred, closeness, friendship, hostility and forced-feigned alpha male competition.

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A LITTLE MORE OF THE SAME?

But even here, it is wisest and most expedient to know how to stand by the neck of analogical digressivity, and start from presenting a short prehistory and a kind of factual baptism of this film. Namely, On top is the first feature-length directorial (and, of course, screenwriting) work of Jesse Armstrong, the creator of the striking screenwriting pen of the masterful drama series Heirs (Succession, HBO), ended a few years ago. On the motive-thematic and contextual level, in this film, at first glance, we find the same thing that we saw in To the heirs - a depiction of the life and struggles of the super-rich, where greed is still the most valuable of all mental currencies, and already at that point it may be possible to criticize that Armstrong (even from an obviously privileged and comfortable position within the guild) offers us a little more of the same here (more of the same), and not long after the end of the series. Here we enter the always awkward terrain of criticisms on the subject of autopilot mannerism and, on the other hand, praise for devotion to creative credo and undeniable creative fascinations and obsessions. In this regard, perhaps, conciliatory and in the spirit of tolerance, fidelity to the formula of success can be diagnosed as a common-sense approach: Armstrong was clear that before conquering drastically different peaks, it was necessary to make a so-called transition film, a film that would present a step forward in form (this is a feature film of about 110 minutes, not a multi-volume series of a much larger size), but which would keep him on a well-known and, obviously, still lucrative field. In a business sense, it seems like a measured move. True, calculating, but also necessary in the dimension of confirming the author's uniqueness and overall conceptual and expressive poetics. Such an assessment could be justified if we consider the rather persistent judgment that the film On top meets the criteria already set for Jesse Armstrong.

BURSTS OF WORDS

Simply put, On top is a more or less camera-like, hyper-verbalized story about a group of four friends-collaborators, who meet in a newly purchased luxurious mountain monstrosity of a house, in the Colorado mountains, in order to once again measure the extent of their individual successes, their further ascent to the very top of the billionaires from the world of technological innovation, and along the way vent their envy, causticism, disgust towards the world of less enterprising and less successful people (hence the isolated house as a counterpart Olympic superiority and physical distance towards inferiors). The viewer quickly notices that in the background there is heated, severely destructive narcissism and toxic solipsism, as a recurrence of the relationship between the characters and, most likely, a striking ingredient of shaky ethical views. Lieutenant. In this regard, the basis is found in logorheic satire, very sharp, very truthful, very penetrating and, finally, very effective, which we see as another buckle with the series Heirs. But before the accusation of self-reflection of mannerism, Armstrong could defend himself that, despite everything, he is still in excellent shape, and that his satire is still propulsive, dynamic, precise, biting and linguistically polished. In addition, the rapidly spoken references give the right to those who claim that Armstrong invented an almost special and peculiar language, while respecting the conventions of standard and high-level English.

GREEN DOLLAR COLOR

On the plot level, however, Armstrong once again chooses a micro-intervention, here specifically through the story of the meeting of four billionaires at the moment when the fake invention of one of them leads to civil, ethnic and racial conflicts in different countries around the planet. This situation will serve as a springboard for the four unshakable and stubborn solipsists for a new series of endless debates on the topic of success, influence, power and profit, and somewhere there will be an idea that by eliminating one of them, the world would become an even more suitable place for destructive games. Armstrong still remains on the other side of the genre expression (specifically thriller), and, with Heirs, as the closest reference imposes a classic (also very loved and appreciated in our country) Glengarry Glen Ross writer David Memet and director James Foley, but with significantly higher stakes. In addition, the location of the story is interesting - everything takes place in a high-tech house on a mountain cliff in Colorado, which brings to mind not only geographical but also a comparative stylistic closeness to the "Sundance" independent film festival, which over the decades has fought for its uniqueness and recognition by offering films like this one - with strong actors (in On top the division is led by Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman, Rami Youssef...), hyper-verbalized to the point of congruence with rambling old-fashioned radio shows and topics that easily move from the individual and local to the universal.

It is an interesting coincidence that Vladimir Mayakovsky's travelogue-memoir prose recently appeared in local bookstores My discovery of America, in which we find the following remark: "The attitude of the American towards the dollar is poetry. He knows that the dollar is the only power in his bourgeois country of one hundred million people (in others as well), and I am sure that, apart from those well-known properties of money, the American aesthetically admires the green color of the dollar, identifying it with spring. (...) And Uncle Lincoln on the dollar and the opportunity for every democrat to make his way among such people, makes the dollar the best and noblest page that youth can to read." And only that, in this or that currency, with all that ostentatious greenness of greed and envy, is only easy to understand here, among us, where the same original accumulation of capital cannot possibly pass and end, because the echelons whose appetites have yet to be satisfied arrive again - of course, to the detriment of the less alavish and less profitable.

Armstrong actors On top they mention and at the same time they dream of getting closer to the ideal of the Nietzschean National Man, with each subsequent move becoming again and again what they "just" are, with fewer and fewer opportunities for progress and further evolution. Similarly, On top, with all the evident qualities, is just a sufficiently successful film on the expected themes, carried by the experience and self-confidence of its author, and on the other hand burdened by the impotence of reflection as proof of fear before the fullness of life.