Oscar season is shaping up with a duel between head movies.
Today, Neon Pictures announced they’ve bought “Artificial,” the Luca Guadagnino film about Sam Altman and Chat GPT.
Neon picks up the feature after Amazon/MGM had to table it. “Artificial” is critical of friends of Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. It’s not “Melania.”
Andrew Garfield stars as Sam Altman, the reptilian founder of the company chipping away at our lives. Remember, Garfield was one of the stars of “The Social Network,” which was written by Aaron Sorkin.
Now, Sorkin has written and directed “The Social Reckoning,” the sort of sequel to “The Social Network.” It’s a continuation of the saga of Mark Zuckerberg — now played by Jeremy Strong — creator of Facebook, the social media platform that has fulfilled its promise of trying to destroy civilization.
These two films will be compared to each other by everyone, starting with critics. They will likely cross each other out, at some point.
What about Oscars? When “The Social Network” came out, it was admired. But it didn’t have the heart of “The King’s Speech.” It was about young people fighting over money they made from something onerous. These two films will be similarly weighed down in the face of “The Odyssey” and other releases.
And buzz? Plenty for both movies. And lots of curiosity. One thing we know for certain. Garfield and Strong will be much touted for the Oscars.
