Computer Chess

A cursory glance at the new movie from Andrew Bujalski, which centres on a programming tournament taking place at a crummy hotel in the early 80s, where men (and one unicorn-like woman) with terrible clothes and hair do battle to see whose fridge freezer-sized computer is best at chess, might suggest a Christopher Guest-style satire. But it’s much more. This is a philosophical comedy as dense and complex as any programming algorithm.

Like Bujalski’s previous wonderful films (Funny Ha Ha, Mutual Appreciation), Computer Chess is concerned with loneliness and miscommunication. And it’s not only the humans struggling to connect. One melancholic computer refuses to play against its fellow hardware: it will only match wits against a soul.

Captured on vintage black and white video cameras that were obsolete decades ago, the aesthetic is as glitchy and idiosyncratic as the characters and their programs. Bujalski is credited as the inventor of the mumblecore sub-genre; this bracingly strange, often surreal movie requires a new classification. But, for now, let’s go with brilliant. [Jamie Dunn]