'Artificial' Review
Release Date: 12/25/26 [Cinemas]
Genre: Biography. Comedy. Drama. Thriller.
MPAA: Rated PG13.
Distributor: Neon.
The Verdict: A Must-See
Amazon’s decision to dump Artificial, Luca Guadagnino’s seething reenactment of OpenAI's creation, was disgraceful. Empowering a filmmaker to make a movie, then dumping it because you don’t like what it wants to say, is pure cowardice, and I commend Neon for making sure the film sees the light of day. I want that on the record as my official take on the situation, because now I want to play the heel for a second. If Amazon wants to do any business with an AI company in the future, this movie is so electrically critical and so condemning of the people in charge of this globe-altering technology that it will come up in almost any future business meeting. If you want to look Sam Altman in the face and make a deal, how can you have this movie that relentlessly mocks him and basically compares him to Lucifer on your books?
None of that is Luca Guadagnino’s problem. All of his movies are very much about humanity, and how humans act and evolve in situations both intimate and universal. Artificial is about that too, but it is primarily a movie about a DEFCON-level threat to human emotion and development. Guadagnino never approaches what is on his mind with a straightforward line, and Artificial is another great example of how the director’s playful spirit brings to life what is ostensibly a straightforward biopic on the page. This has one of the most specifically calibrated tones in recent movie memory. It’s as if The Social Network played like an elevated Saturday Night Live parody, yet still riled you up. That comparison makes sense when you consider who Luca is as a filmmaker, and that screenwriter Simon Rich wrote 78 episodes of SNL in his career.
David Fincher’s 2010 masterpiece (which of course is back in the news for Social Reckoning reasons) is an easy comparison for Artificial when you look at the bones of both films’ screenplays. Both films chronicle the brick-by-brick construction of a tech empire, though Artificial’s structure is much more straightforward than Social Network’s back-and-forth time-weaving. The first 30 minutes or so feel a bit more labored than the rest of the film, as it introduces us to all the key players. The most important of these players is genius computer scientist Ilya Sutskever (Yura Borisov), whose early 2000s AI work under Geoffrey Hinton (Mark Rylance) not only lands them cushy jobs at Google, but also attracts the attention of a lot of Silicon Valley money. Ilya is as eager and ambitious as he is smart, but he never really pumps the brakes on pushing his research forward, which makes him vulnerable to the allure of wealthy investors who court his brain.
Cue the Jeff Goldblum from Jurassic Park, as Artificial asks not whether Ilya could have created AI, but whether he should. To Ilya’s credit, at least from Rich’s script, he’s one of the only decision-makers who even stops to consider the need for safeguards. All the investors see are dollar signs, but they do a damn good job of getting Ilya’s attention with a lot of talk about nonprofit human frontier work and improving the population. Sam Altman (Garfield) is, of course, the lead snake charmer.
The Social Network comparison also fits Artificial for obvious Andrew Garfield reasons. His Eduardo Saverin was the soul and conscience of that movie, and his Altman is the opposite: a frightening creature of opportunity. This is the most physical and theatrical performance the actor has ever given. He skulks around like a Universal monster, wearing bright blue eye contacts that make him look less like Altman and more like a vampire in daylight. His vocal mannerisms and tics, plus the way he uses his hands and inserts the word “like” into every sentence, make him feel inhuman in a way that is deeply unflattering to the real-life Altman. He’s not really reaching for reality; he’s reaching for the uncanny valley, like a cross between Tilly Norwood and Satan. It is a frequently funny, always disconcerting masterclass in faux impression. If it is not his best performance (though it may be), it is unquestionably his most memorable one.
Altman’s acolytes, much like Mark Zuckerberg’s, assemble around him like a cult. Plenty of team-building events in the San Francisco valley see OpenAI employees chant about “AGI” (Artificial General Intelligence) like an army heralding the arrival of their new tyrant. The language these characters use is very specific. Most of Altman’s cronies, particularly Cooper Hoffman’s board chairman Greg Brokman, speak with this polite wokeness that pretends to be socially conscious but is actually quite insidious. They don’t get down to business--they weaponize pleasantries. The only person who doesn’t even bother with the pleasantries is Elon Musk, played with the bravado of King Dork by Ike Barinholtz.
Guadagnino certainly does not straddle the line between heroes and villains. Borisov’s performance is the only one that doesn’t really have a trace of camp, which fits the role he plays. This is a strong follow-up to his breakout turn in Anora, showcasing depth and range he couldn't show as his stoic character in that Best Picture winner. He has good scenes with Monica Barbaro, whose light Albanian accent and general charm make a somewhat underwritten portrayal of chief tech officer Mira Murati work.
This is a damning, cynical film about something Guadagnino clearly finds a very ugly, present danger to who we are as a species. It also looks and sounds absolutely beautiful. Malik Hassan Sayeed’s cinematography makes Silicon Valley look as alluring as ancient Babylon, with rows and rows of wine country and never-ending slopey streets. Gorillaz musician Damon Albarn creates a fitting, techy score and contributes a few original songs to the soundtrack. This is a very watchable and entertaining movie that could only have been made by artists, which makes it all the more distressing when you consider the fate it seems to predict for those types.
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