Luca Guadagnino’s ‘Artificial’: First Reactions
tags:Luca Guadagnino‘s hotly anticipated Sam Altman biopic Artificial held its premiere at the New York Film Festival on Monday night and the first reactions to the movie have already hit social media.
The film, billed as a biographical dramedy, tells the story of a chaotic boardroom crisis at OpenAI in November 2023, when co-founder Altman was fired and then re-hired at the AI giant.
Andrew Garfield stars as Altman, with Anora‘s Yura Borisov playing Ilya Sutskever, the chief scientific officer and co-founder of OpenAI who fires Altman. Monica Barbaro plays Mira Murati, the chief technology officer of OpenAI, and Cooper Hoffman plays Greg Brockman, the board chairman of OpenAI. Ike Barinholtz stars as Elon Musk, the other co-founder of OpenAI.
The cast also includes Jason Schwartzman, Chris O’Dowd, Mark Rylance, Zosia Mamet, Billie Lourd, Angus Imrie, Nicholas Hamilton and Thaddea Graham.
Artificial was written by humorist and Saturday Night Live alum Simon Rich. The film was developed at Amazon MGM Studios before Guadagnino was hired to direct it. Amazon MGM notoriously ended up dropping the film several days after parent company Amazon signed a deal a $50 billion deal with OpenAI.
Neon picked up Artificial in a unique deal in which they paid nothing up front but committed to a $15 million marketing spend.
Guadagnino’s film comes at a time when Hollywood is applying much greater scruitiny to Silicon Valley’s tech titans. In recent weeks, Alex Gibney has released Musk, a searing documentary about the polarizing trillionaire, and this past Sunday, Aaron Sorkin premiered The Social Reckoing, a followup to The Social Network, with another unflattering look at Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg. Also coming up in Nathan Fielder’s acclaimed docudrama You Can See Everything, about disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes.
Artificial hits theaters on Dec. 25. Read on below for early social media reaction to the film.
In Guadagnino's bleakly compelling ARTIFICIAL, Andrew Garfield takes some massive & tricky swings in his portrayal of Sam Altman. What he pulls off is mesmerizing, strange and terrifyingly seductive, especially as he finally becomes the film's center. A career-best performance.
— David Canfield (@davidcanfield97) October 6, 2026
ARTIFICIAL is Luca Guadagnino’s telling of the origins of the AI boom and where it may one day lead us. As entertaining as it is terrifying, it’s a brilliantly written human story about power, control, ambition, and greed that might be the most urgently relevant film of our time.… pic.twitter.com/ImHKX94vSq
— Matt Neglia @NYFF (@NextBestPicture) October 6, 2026
ARTIFICIAL is a movie about dreaming up the future that feels like one long narratively unfocused dream having a tonal identity crisis room to room. Somehow everyone in the cast feels like they don’t belong here and is just a bizarre pileup of bad decisions. Andrew Garfield is… pic.twitter.com/uzXgC4uleL
— Jason (@jasonosia) October 6, 2026
Luca Guadagnino's "Artificial" tells the true story of the five days in November 2023 when humanity probably had its last real shot at survival, and blew it because of money and small-dick tech bros. We are so cooked. All that aside, it's Guadagnino's best film in a decade, with… pic.twitter.com/KQxjU2r0Xb
— Clayton Davis (@ByClaytonDavis) October 5, 2026
ARTIFICIAL starts out very funny and gets increasingly more disturbing without losing its sense of humor. I cannot think of another filmmaker who could have pulled off this balance. Yura Borisov is the MVP of a remarkable ensemble. He looks so different here, many won’t recognize… pic.twitter.com/cSYeXZvoXs
— Film Festival (@LifeIsAFilmFest) October 6, 2026
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. #NYFF
— Joshua Rothkopf (@joshrothkopf) October 5, 2026
ARTIFICIAL is a pitch-perfect dark comedy about the absence of responsibility in the face of apocalyptic certainty. Andrew Garfield walks a fine line between movie monster, buffoonish mogul, and evil genius. A fun/scary ride that embodies the paradox at its center. #NYFF
— erickohn (@erickohn) October 6, 2026
Have another screening to go to so a longer review will come later but I absolutely loved Luca Guadagnino’s #Artificial
It’s an intimate character study but on a huge scale. The cast is amazing. Andrew Garfield fully becomes Sam Altman. Monica Barbaro is excellent as always.…
— Greg Pomes 🎬 (@Greg_Pomes) October 6, 2026
Artificial runs out of steam before the end, but 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. pic.twitter.com/ewhwxYAhO0
— Joey Magidson (@JoeyMagidson) October 6, 2026
The highlight of Guadagnino’s Artificial is its stellar performances. Borisov shines as the moral core of the film. Garfield disturbingly channels the sinister underbelly of Altman’s public persona. And Barinholtz’s cartoonishly evil Musk steals the show. They’ll hate it! #NYFF64 pic.twitter.com/eT3LHWUirz
— Ben (@_benggg_) October 6, 2026
Artificial (2026) – Guadagnino part parody, part haunting recreation of Silicon Valley shitheads and intellectual outcasts convening to sign humanity’s death sentence makes you want to recoil. Garfield passively sinister performance is terrifying. #NYFF64
Review to come soon… pic.twitter.com/H2krPYEPXp
— Giovanni Lago @NYFF (@TheGiovanniLago) October 6, 2026
Wanna be clear: Luca Guadagnino’s ARTIFICIAL is a horror comedy. About the destruction of humanity. In real time. You’re laughing at the ridiculous characters & also THESE PEOPLE EXIST, they’re running the world, and the info in the movie is already old. Fucking terrifying #nyff
— Jada Yuan (@jadabird) October 6, 2026
ARTIFICIAL
— Anthony @ NYFF64 (@AnAntLife) October 6, 2026
Guadagnino's operatic tragedy of human's desire to race to the end. Shot like the horror that it is elevated by Damon Albarn's beautifully unsettling score. Script's tonal mix doesn't always land but Yura Borisov keeps its humanity as it all descends into hell#NYFF64 pic.twitter.com/eu1lJZBMn4
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
— Gregory Ellwood – The Playlist 🎬 (@TheGregoryE) October 5, 2026
ARTIFICIAL. Guadagnino guts Silicon Valley with his obsessive pulse & a powerful farce in which Andrew Garfield completely shines. A feverish, visceral corporate drama that proves what is truly artificial was never in the machines, but in the boardroom. An essential film. #NYFF64 pic.twitter.com/030RZzuERt
— Jairo Jiménez @NYFF (@jairojimenez_) October 6, 2026
Andrew Garfield is terrifyingly precise in ARTIFICIAL. He captures Sam Altman’s chillingly polite, messianic aura in a brilliant balancing act of manic genius and corporate coldness. Absolutely electric! #NYFF64 pic.twitter.com/hSeKmyFzXh
— Jairo Jiménez @NYFF (@jairojimenez_) October 6, 2026
Artificial is tremendous, a blistering and furious reworking of The Social Network for a world that’s well past the point of destruction, intimate in character but sweeping in scale, more acutely aware of our expiration date than any other film this year. a major achievement
— coffee (@eventualforever) October 5, 2026
Artificial is the movie of our time. Guadagnino & Rich’s disdain of Altman echoes Sorkin/Fincher’s thesis; these guys are lonely, pathetic, and desperate for power. Garfield is a force of nature, but Borisov & Barbaro stole the show as Altman’s accolytes turned whistleblowers.
— byrne (@wildiife_) October 6, 2026
Guadagnino’s direction is remarkable in Artificial. he successfully balances the weight of humanity on the brink of technocratic takeover and the sheer ridiculousness of the men doing it. the film stretches the convention of genre with laugh out loud lines and a bone chilling end
— byrne (@wildiife_) October 6, 2026