Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
Reviewed as part of the 27th Leeds International Film Festival (6-21 Nov, 2013)
It is no coincidence that, for a film concerned with the consequences of pitching man against machine, Computer Chess tries to outsmart its audience from the outset. Its most immediate trick is in posing to be a found-footage documentary; precisely how you’d imagine an early ’80s chess convention held in a blandly anonymous Us hotel would look. Indeed, the effort with which this illusion is maintained is certainly commendable; everything from the technical jargon to the period setting strives towards authenticity. You might have your suspicions when our cameraman, shooting on a ’67 black- and-white Sony Portapak, somehow appears in the frame – but by then the game is already up.
Rather uniquely, the competitors are all chess software programmers pitting their computers against each other for a weekend tournament, vying for both the prize money and,...
Reviewed as part of the 27th Leeds International Film Festival (6-21 Nov, 2013)
It is no coincidence that, for a film concerned with the consequences of pitching man against machine, Computer Chess tries to outsmart its audience from the outset. Its most immediate trick is in posing to be a found-footage documentary; precisely how you’d imagine an early ’80s chess convention held in a blandly anonymous Us hotel would look. Indeed, the effort with which this illusion is maintained is certainly commendable; everything from the technical jargon to the period setting strives towards authenticity. You might have your suspicions when our cameraman, shooting on a ’67 black- and-white Sony Portapak, somehow appears in the frame – but by then the game is already up.
Rather uniquely, the competitors are all chess software programmers pitting their computers against each other for a weekend tournament, vying for both the prize money and,...
- 11/18/2013
- by Dan Wakefield
- Obsessed with Film
Review Ryan Lambie 20 Sep 2013 - 07:15
It may be about 1980s programmers, but Computer Chess really is a must-see indie comedy drama, Ryan writes...
Of all the things to make a movie out of, why a bunch of computer science geeks trying to make a program that can beat a human at chess? Writer, director and editor Andrew Bujalski’s one-of-a-kind comedy drama Computer Chess provides the unequivocal answer, serving up a strange, philosophical and extraordinarily funny film that you won’t need a master’s degree to appreciate.
It’s 1980, and a mid-market Texas hotel plays host to an unusual tournament: its participants must pit their chess-playing computer programs against each other to see which is the most advanced, with the winning programmers earning the opportunity to try to beat flesh-and-blood chess champion Pat Henderson (Gerald Peary) at his own game.
Shot entirely on black-and-white Sony video cameras hailing from the 1960s,...
It may be about 1980s programmers, but Computer Chess really is a must-see indie comedy drama, Ryan writes...
Of all the things to make a movie out of, why a bunch of computer science geeks trying to make a program that can beat a human at chess? Writer, director and editor Andrew Bujalski’s one-of-a-kind comedy drama Computer Chess provides the unequivocal answer, serving up a strange, philosophical and extraordinarily funny film that you won’t need a master’s degree to appreciate.
It’s 1980, and a mid-market Texas hotel plays host to an unusual tournament: its participants must pit their chess-playing computer programs against each other to see which is the most advanced, with the winning programmers earning the opportunity to try to beat flesh-and-blood chess champion Pat Henderson (Gerald Peary) at his own game.
Shot entirely on black-and-white Sony video cameras hailing from the 1960s,...
- 9/19/2013
- by ryanlambie
- Den of Geek
Making a low-budget horror feature that neither succumbs to nor strains to transcend its financial restrictions is harder than it appears, but the people behind Splinter make it look easy. Modest but not unambitious and put together with care on every level, it’s smart, scary and altogether satisfying creature feature of the type we don’t see enough of these days.
Director Toby Wilkins and screenwriters Kai Barry and Ian Shorr do have a bit of fun with genre expectations in the early scenes, as young lovers Seth (Paulo Costanzo) and Polly (Jill Wagner) set out for a camping trip in a rural area that we know is the hunting turf of a small, vicious creature that mauls a gas station attendant in the opening scene. The couple, however, is defeated by their tent, and they seem to be heading back to the safety of civilization when they’re...
Director Toby Wilkins and screenwriters Kai Barry and Ian Shorr do have a bit of fun with genre expectations in the early scenes, as young lovers Seth (Paulo Costanzo) and Polly (Jill Wagner) set out for a camping trip in a rural area that we know is the hunting turf of a small, vicious creature that mauls a gas station attendant in the opening scene. The couple, however, is defeated by their tent, and they seem to be heading back to the safety of civilization when they’re...
- 4/10/2009
- Fangoria
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