X
- 2013
- Not Rated
- GathrFilms
- 1 h 32 m
- 2013
- Not Rated
- GathrFilms
- 1 h 32 m
Summary A 1980s-set story centered around a weekend chess tournament that pits man against machine.
Directed By: Andrew Bujalski
Written By: Andrew Bujalski
- 2013
- Not Rated
- GathrFilms
- 1 h 32 m
- 2013
- Not Rated
- GathrFilms
- 1 h 32 m
Computer Chess
74
7.3
Where to Watch
Summary A 1980s-set story centered around a weekend chess tournament that pits man against machine.
Directed By: Andrew Bujalski
Written By: Andrew Bujalski
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 26 Critic Reviews
74
81% Positive
21 Reviews
21 Reviews
12% Mixed
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
8% Negative
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 26 Critic Reviews
74
81% Positive
21 Reviews
21 Reviews
12% Mixed
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
8% Negative
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
The endlessly surprising, often riotously funny Computer Chess basks in the details of a group of men who, at a key point in history, are asking themselves not only if they can accomplish something, but why, and what it means to their current generation.
There’s even a shadowy hanger-on (played by novelist and journalist Jim Lewis) who may be a drug dealer or a CIA-NSA-type spook or both. That’s just one of the many ways that this profound, peculiar work of genius, this half-comic portrait of the present in embryo within the past, reverberates with hidden meanings and a questing intelligence.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 19 User Ratings
7.3
74% Positive
14 Ratings
14 Ratings
16% Mixed
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
11% Negative
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 19 User Ratings
7.3
74% Positive
14 Ratings
14 Ratings
16% Mixed
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
11% Negative
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
There are no user reviews yet. Be the first to add a review.
Shot on a vintage Portapak video camera that actually predates the movie’s early-eighties setting and painstakingly crafted to resemble an analog artifact from a bygone era, Computer Chess is, ironically, a comedy about technological innovation.
What’s past is prescient, and what it all means is beside the point. Let’s just say Bujalski has made a prankishly out-of-time movie about that other AI: mankind.
At a certain point, Bujalski - the mumblecore meister, gleefully pushing the envelope of credulity here - jettisons the mock-doc pretense for a Christopher Guest-like glimpse into a strange subculture of the everyday.
Better to stick with his slightly weird, ultra-focused nerds, who toil away on something strange and special, simply for the beauty of it.
Even for a mumblecore film, Computer Chess is weak stuff, a punitively dull chunk of quirk that is about, and feels like, being stuck in a motel with a gaggle of programming nerds for a weekend.
Production Company
Computer Chess
Release Date Jul 17, 2013
Duration 1 h 32 m
Rating Not Rated
Genres
Tagline An artificially intelligent comedy from the director of Funny Ha Ha and Mutual Appreciation.
Awards
Sundance Film Festival
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations
Film Independent Spirit Awards
• 2 Nominations
Indiewire Critics' Poll
• 2 Nominations
