Andrew Garfield’s ‘Artificial’ Draws Early Raves: ‘Spiritual Successor to The Social Network’

The first reactions are in for Luca Guadagnino’s “Artificial,” and they’re overwhelmingly positive. The film, which stars Andrew Garfield as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, debuted at the New York Film Festival. Screen Rant collected the early critic responses.

“Artificial” covers Altman’s firing and rehiring in 2023. Yura Borisov plays Ilya Sutskever, the co-founder who fires Altman, and Ike Barinholtz plays Elon Musk. With a PG-13 rating, it’s Guadagnino’s first movie not rated R or unrated by the MPA.

Critics are drawing a direct line to “The Social Network.” Joshua Rothkopf wrote, “Luca Guadagnino just ate Sorkin’s lunch. In every way, ARTIFICIAL is the spiritual sequel to THE SOCIAL NETWORK, threading together betrayal, broken ethics and humor — and arriving at a vision as scary as COLOSSUS: THE FORBIN PROJECT. Damon Albarn’s Bowie-esque score ftw.”

Clayton Davis called it “Guadagnino’s best film in a decade, with Andrew Garfield and Yura Borisov soaring to new heights. Loved it.” Gregory Ellwood praised Garfield’s performance: “In a year of filmmakers warning us the end is coming Artificial is a sledgehammer. My lord. And not that he needs it, but Andrew Garfield gives Sam Altman the most epic character assassination ever.”

Matt Neglia said Garfield “delivers one of his most unsettling and transformative performances as Sam Altman, equally capturing his disarming charm and unnerving malice.” He called the film “a brilliantly written human story about power, control, ambition, and greed that might be the most urgently relevant film of our time.”

Not every reaction is full-throated. Joey Magidson felt “Artificial runs out of steam before the end,” but added that “for much of its running time, it’s a pitch black and often savage comedy about the irresponsibility in regards to AI that might be our doom. Andrew Garfield skewers Sam Altman, while Ike Barinholtz steals his scenes as Elon Musk.”

• Andrew Garfield
• Artificial
• first reactions
• Luca Guadagnino
• OpenAI
• Sam Altman