Computer Chess

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Computer Chess

2013,

1h 31m,

Comedy

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Watchlist

86%

81 Reviews

Tomatometer

53%

2,500+ Ratings

Popcornmeter

86%

Tomatometer

81 Reviews

53%

Popcornmeter

2,500+ Ratings

In the early 1980s, young computer geniuses take part in a tournament to see who can create a program that will enable a computer to beat a human player at chess.

Critics Consensus

With its delightfully retro production design, Computer Chess is an inventive, intelligent, and humorous comedy that celebrates the eccentricity and uniqueness of its subject.

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Bill Stamets

Chicago Sun-Times

May 13, 2025

2.5/4

A naturalist comic of inarticulate manners, writer-director Andrew Bujalski attempts the ensemble styles of Robert Altman and Christopher Guest to peer into a micro-culture in Computer Chess.

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Todd McCarthy

The Hollywood Reporter

May 13, 2025

Unfortunately, writer-director Andrew Bujalski’s latest is as deadly dull as the event it covers...

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Amy Taubin

Film Comment Magazine

Aug 28, 2019

Andrew Bujalski's Computer Chess is bracingly idiosyncratic-and close to perfect.

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Vadim Rizov

Filmmaker Magazine

Jan 25, 2023

Computer Chess is bounded only by the ambitious weirdness of its creator’s willingness to baffle, discombobulate, introduce unexpected new elements.

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Ray Pride

Newcity

Jun 4, 2022

10/10

<I>Computer Chess</I>' deep-ecology tech comedy is completely under control, never sacrificing an innate, lovely weirdness. [It] looks like it wasn’t even made, that it just happened, and sat, shedding magnetic flakes on a closet shelf for decades.

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Jeremy Polacek

Hyperallergic

Jan 31, 2020

While relations between actors are delightful, what Bujalski does to link man and computer is clever and singular -- slyly masterful.

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Hagrid W

Jan 22, 2019

Not very engaging, interesting or funny.

Harry S

Aug 9, 2018

Too plausible to be funny, and otherwise lacked anything else to make it interesting other than the fantastic production choices.

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Hermione S

Jul 22, 2018

It goes places and then it goes some more distant places

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Synopsis

In the early 1980s, young computer geniuses take part in a tournament to see who can create a program that will enable a computer to beat a human player at chess.

Director: Andrew Bujalski
Producer: Morgan Coy, Scott Colquitt, Andrew Finnigan, Brooke Finnigan
Screenwriter: Andrew Bujalski
Distributor: Kino Lorber
Production Co: Computer Chess
Genre: Comedy
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jul 17, 2013, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Nov 6, 2014
Box Office (Gross USA): $100.6K
Runtime: 1h 31m

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