Andrew Garfield's Record-Breaking New Movie Gets Official First Reactions

Published Oct 5, 2026, 8:40 PM EDT

Matthew Rudoy is one of ScreenRant's Movie & TV News Editors. He covers the latest in movie & TV news, with a focus on major franchises like Star Wars, The Boys, and Game of Thrones, and also writes some features and reviews. He wrote lists for ScreenRant from 2017-2022, became a news writer in 2023, a senior staff writer in 2024, and an editor in 2025. 

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Andrew Garfield's new movie Artificial has received its first reactions.

Directed by Luca Guadagnino, Artificial sees Garfield playing controversial OpenAI CEO Sam Altman when he is fired and rehired in 2023. Ilya Sutskever, the co-founder of OpenAI who fires Altman, is played by Yura Borisov, while Elon Musk is portrayed by Ike Barinholtz. With a rating of PG-13, the film breaks the record of being Guadagnino's first movie to not be rated R or receive no rating from the MPA.

After premiering at the New York Film Festival, film critics are sharing their first reactions to Artificial. Comparing it to The Social Network, Joshua Rothkopf declares, "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 hails Artificial as "Guadagnino's best film in a decade, with Andrew Garfield and Yura Borisov soaring to new heights. Loved it." Gregory Ellwood also has high praise for Garfield's performance and for the movie as a whole: "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."

When looking at Garfield's entire career, Matt Neglia argues that Artificial "delivers one of his most unsettling and transformative performances as Sam Altman, equally capturing his disarming charm and unnerving malice." He also praises the movie for being "a brilliantly written human story about power, control, ambition, and greed that might be the most urgently relevant film of our time."

While Joey Magidson feels that "Artificial runs out of steam before the end," he writes 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."

More to come...

Cast

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  Sam Altman

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  Yuriy Borisov

  Ilya Sutskever

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  Jason Schwartzman

  Uncredited

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  Cooper Hoffman

  Greg Brockman