Luca Guadagnino’s “Artificial” premiered at the New York Film Festival Monday night, and early reviews have members of the film press championing the Sam Altman-centered movie as a “provocative,” “visceral corporate drama” and the director’s “best film in a decade.”

Next Best Picture editor-in-chief and critic Matt Neglia wrote that “Artificial” is “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. Andrew Garfield delivers one of his most unsettling and transformative performances as Sam Altman, equally capturing his disarming charm and unnerving malice.”

He continued: “Yura Borisov is magnificent as the brilliant mind behind OpenAI, wrestling with the moral implications of the creation he has helped unleash upon the world with intelligence and empathy. Damon Albarn’s electronic, atmospheric score perfectly sets the mood for this tech-driven narrative, while Guadagnino’s cinematic flourishes are bountiful, resulting in what may be his funniest and scariest film to date. Provocative, engaging, and downright horrifying, it’s the movie of the moment that we may not even be able to look back on if the vision of the future it presents comes true.”

Editor Eric Kohn called the film a “pitch-perfect dark comedy.” “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,” he wrote on X.

“Guadagnino guts Silicon Valley with his obsessive pulse & a powerful farce in which Andrew Garfield completely shines,” wrote film critic Jairo Jiménez. “A feverish, visceral corporate drama that proves what is truly artificial was never in the machines, but in the boardroom. An essential film.”

Variety’s Clayton Davis wrote that “Artificial” is “Guadagnino’s best film in a decade” and “Andrew Garfield and Yura Borisov soar to new heights. Loved.”

Set during the tumultuous time when Altman, OpenAI’s CEO (played by Andrew Garfield), was fired and then rehired by the AI giant in 2023, “Artificial” has faced its own challenges getting to theaters; in June, Neon closed a deal to complete the $40 million film after Amazon MGM Studios dropped the project months earlier after the company signed a major partnership with OpenAI, including a $50 billion investment.

Despite how hot-button some may feel the film is, Guadagnino told Vulture that he wasn’t “afraid” of Altman’s — or anyone depicted in the film’s — response. “I think that people that have a lot of power should be very much aware that you must be responsible for the community.”

And though Altman never met Garfield, the tech CEO admitted in a recent Vanity Fair cover story that the actor “did walk like me” when he ran into production filming near his house. “One morning, I was walking down the street to get coffee and there were all these cameras and there was a guy dressed exactly like me with my same backpack walking so much that I felt I was in some weird glitch of the simulation or something,” Altman told Vanity Fair. “It was very strange.”

“Artificial” reunited Guadagnino with Garfield, who last worked with the director in 2025’s “After the Hunt.” Ike Barinholtz stars as co-founder Elon Musk, Monica Barbaro plays former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, “Anora” breakout Yura Borisov is former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever and Mark Rylance plays Nobel Prize winner Geoffrey Hinton. Jason Schwartzman, Zosia Mamet, Cooper Hoffman, Chris O’Dowd, Cooper Koch and Billie Lourd also appear in the film. “SNL” alum Simon Rich penned the script.

Ahead of the premiere’s conclusion, Variety exclusively reported that Neon’s awards campaign for the film will include Garfield and Rylance competing in the supporting actor category and Borisov campaigning in lead actor. Barbaro will vie for supporting actress.

“Artificial” opens in theaters on Christmas Day from Neon. Check out first reactions in the posts below.