Computer Chess

Andrew Bujalski’s hilarious and surreal comedy about the birth of computer culture, set in an early 1980s conference where primitive programmers take on chess masters.

Andrew Bujalski’s hilarious and surreal comedy about the birth of computer culture. At an early 1980s chess conference, delegates are attempting to discover whether it’s possible to design a computer programme that can beat a real person at the game.

Filmed on a primitive black-and-white video camera from the era, the long-awaited fourth film from Bujalski, éminence grise of the American ‘mumblecore’ movement, is more than just an affectionate, retro-loving paean to the birth of computer culture. With a constantly upending, shifting tone that encompasses moments of surreal drama alongside the laughs, Computer Chess is an unclassifiable marvel of recent US indie cinema.