Computer Chess

Computer Chess (2013) is an American indie comedy from Andrew Bujalski you can watch online on iFILM. In the early 1980s a pack of programmers checks into a shabby hotel for a tournament where their machines play chess against each other.

The whole thing looks dug out of the past: Bujalski shot it on vintage tube video cameras, grainy and black-and-white, until it's nearly indistinguishable from a tape made in 1980. Bespectacled enthusiasts argue over when a computer will finally beat a human, lug heavy monitors down hallways, and notice odd things in their code — one program seems to stop playing by the rules. Down the corridor a couples' encounter group is meeting, and the two worlds bump awkwardly together.

Bujalski, one of the founders of mumblecore, made a dry, endearingly strange comedy about the dawn of artificial intelligence and the people who believed in it first. Niche, sure, but it sticks with you. Stream Computer Chess online on iFILM.