A film about the rise of OpenAI could quite easily have ended up as two and a half hours of people sitting in offices talking about artificial intelligence. Thankfully, Luca Guadagnino’s Artificial is not that film. It is funny, strange, uncomfortable and at times pretty terrifying, which is probably fitting when the story it is telling has already become such a huge part of everyday life.

The film spans two decades, beginning with Ilya Sutskever, played by Yura Borisov, working under Geoffrey Hinton, played by Mark Rylance, before his path eventually crosses with Sam Altman, played by Andrew Garfield. From there, OpenAI is formed, Elon Musk enters the picture and the race to develop increasingly powerful AI begins. The story eventually reaches the events of November 2023, when Altman was removed as OpenAI CEO before returning just days later.

That sounds like a lot of boardrooms, meetings and technical conversations, but Artificial moves through it with a surprising amount of energy. Guadagnino and writer Simon Rich know how ridiculous parts of this world can be, and the film is happy to laugh at that. Then, every so often, it reminds you what these people are actually building and the laughter gets a bit more uncomfortable.

Andrew Garfield and Yura Borisov Are Excellent

Andrew Garfield is brilliant as Sam Altman. The film introduces him as an almost awkward presence before gradually giving him more power within the story, and Garfield has a lot of fun with that shift. His Altman can be charming one minute and unsettling the next, and by the final stretch there is something about watching him that becomes difficult to shake.

Yura Borisov is just as good as Ilya Sutskever and, for us, he is the heart of the film. Ilya is fascinated by what AI could become and believes it might be capable of doing enormous good, but he is also one of the people most worried about where things are heading. Borisov plays that conflict beautifully, especially as Ilya starts realising that the technology he helped create may be moving beyond what anyone can properly control.

Ike Barinholtz gets some of the biggest laughs as Elon Musk, with the film making full use of his more absurd moments without turning him into a complete cartoon. Mark Rylance is also great as Geoffrey Hinton, while Monica Barbaro plays Mira Murati and adds another perspective to the growing divide over OpenAI’s direction. The cast is excellent across the board, but Garfield and Borisov are the ones who shine.

Artificial Is Much Funnier Than We Expected

One thing that surprised us about Artificial is how funny it is. This could easily have been played so seriously that it became exhausting, but Guadagnino finds plenty of humour in watching enormously powerful people talk about the future of humanity over expensive dinners, on private jets and in Silicon Valley offices.

The comedy does not take away from what the film is saying either. If anything, it makes the darker parts work better. One minute you are laughing at Musk struggling with a bottle of ketchup or at the egos bouncing around a room, and the next someone is explaining that the technology they are developing has learned how to lie.

That is where Artificial becomes pretty frightening. There are no robots marching through cities or huge science-fiction set pieces. Most of what happens takes place in offices, cafés, houses and meeting rooms, which makes everything feel a lot closer to home. These are people sitting around talking about technology that could change the world, and the film keeps coming back to the fact that even they do not always seem sure where it is going.

Luca Guadagnino Makes a Tech Story Feel Huge

Guadagnino keeps the film moving across years, companies and relationships without making it feel like a history lesson. Dates flash past, people move from university offices to tech conferences and then into more powerful positions, and before long ChatGPT has arrived and everything has changed.

There are a few moments where the 140-minute runtime can be felt, but we were never bored. The shifts in tone can also be quite sudden, with the film moving between satire, drama and something close to horror, but that unpredictability became part of what we liked about it.

There is also something unsettling about Guadagnino’s camerawork. Characters sometimes look straight into the camera during conversations, and even the spaces around them can feel a little off. By the final scenes, that unease has built into something more sinister, and it stays with you after the credits roll.

Artificial clearly has a point of view about the people and decisions at the centre of this story, but the contradictions between them say plenty on their own. Ilya believes AI could help solve enormous problems but fears what it might become. Altman talks about safety while pushing forward. Everyone seems aware, to different degrees, that they may have opened a door they cannot close, and yet nobody stops walking through it.

For CultureCues, we loved Artificial. We caught it at the Royal Festival Hall during the BFI London Film Festival, and it ended up being one of our favourites from the festival. Andrew Garfield is fantastic, Yura Borisov is brilliant as Ilya and the film made us laugh more than we expected before leaving us slightly horrified by what we had just watched. It is clever, funny, unsettling and packed with performances we could talk about for hours. Luca Guadagnino has taken a story that could have been incredibly dry and turned it into something we could not stop thinking about afterwards.

CultureCues Rating: ★★★★★ (5/5)

Artificial is screening at the BFI London Film Festival 2026, with further screenings on Thursday 15 October at 3:30pm at Vue West End and Friday 16 October at 11:30am at the Royal Festival Hall. The film is due to arrive in UK cinemas on 22 January 2027.

More from CultureCues

Bunker Review: Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem Shine at the BFI London Film Festival

Wildwood Makes World Premiere at BFI London Film Festival

World War Z 2 Is Finally Happening With Brad Pitt Returning