Guadagnino's OpenAI movie 'Artificial' splits critics at New York premiere
Artificial, Luca Guadagnino's dark comedy about the founding of OpenAI, premiered Monday at the New York Film Festival with Andrew Garfield as Sam Altman. Critics praised Garfield but split on the film, from "the most important movie" of the year to a "muddled" satire. Neon opens it in U.S. theaters on Christmas Day.
A movie about the company behind ChatGPT got its first public showing this week, and critics did not agree on it.
Artificial, directed by Luca Guadagnino, had its world premiere Monday at the New York Film Festival. Andrew Garfield plays OpenAI chief Sam Altman. Yura Borisov plays co-founder Ilya Sutskever, and Mark Rylance plays AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton. Ike Barinholtz plays Elon Musk, and Monica Barbaro plays Mira Murati. The script is by Simon Rich, and Damon Albarn wrote the music.
The film follows OpenAI from 2003, when a teenage Sutskever meets Hinton, through the 2023 board fight that fired Altman and then brought him back days later.
Deadline's Pete Hammond loved it. He called Garfield "stunning" and said the film may be "the most important movie you will see this year." He called it a dark comedy that turns so scary it is hard to laugh.
The Guardian's Owen Myers was cooler. He called it a "muddled tech satire" that felt "more of an op-ed than a movie," though he said Garfield was "brilliantly slimy" and Borisov was the film's heart.
The film had a rocky path to theaters. It was made under Amazon MGM Studios, but Amazon pulled out of releasing it. Both reviews point to Amazon's large investment in OpenAI. The indie studio Neon picked it up. It is rated PG-13 and runs 2 hours and 20 minutes.
Artificial is part of a wave of films about tech leaders. Aaron Sorkin's Facebook drama The Social Reckoning opens Friday, and new documentaries on Musk and Elizabeth Holmes are also on the way.
Where to watch: Neon releases Artificial in U.S. theaters on Dec. 25. The Guardian lists Jan. 21 for Australia and Jan. 27 for the U.K.
What we know: The film is finished, rated and set for Christmas Day.
What we don't: How OpenAI or Altman will respond to it.
Where outlets agree Deadline and The Guardian both report that Artificial premiered at the New York Film Festival with Garfield as Altman and opens in U.S. theaters on Dec. 25 after Amazon dropped it.
Where they differ Deadline calls it possibly the year's most important film, while The Guardian calls it a muddled satire that plays more like an op-ed.