Artificial

Anchored by brilliant lead performances by Andrew Garfield and Yura Borisov, Luca Guadagnino’s thrilling, funny, and very human drama propels audiences through the two decades of machine learning research that have brought us to our current AI crisis point.

In 2003, Soviet-born computer scientist Ilya Sutskever (Yura Borisov) began studying artificial neural networks under University of Toronto professor Geoffrey “Godfather of AI” Hinton (Mark Rylance). A decade later, while employed by Google, Sutskever fatefully crosses paths with a young entrepreneur named Sam Altman (Andrew Garfield), the eventual co-founder and CEO of OpenAI. Among our boldest auteurs, Guadagnino (Call Me by Your Name) takes his biggest swing yet for this headlong plunge into our doomsday moment, with a script by Simon Rich that probes the increasing gray areas between human and machine, truth and lie. Anchored by brilliant, fully inhabited lead performances by Garfield and Borisov; a remarkable supporting cast, including Rylance, Monica Barbaro, Cooper Hoffman, Ike Barinholtz, Jason Schwartzman, and Chris O’Dowd; and original songs and score by Damon Albarn, Guadagnino’s film moves like a machine in unstoppable, constant motion—a history being written as we’re watching it.

Screening at Luna Leederville from January 21.