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Andrew Bujalski\u2019s Computer Chess<\/i> (2013) represents a radical departure for this indie writer\/director. Bujalski has been associated with mumblecore ever since Funny Ha Ha<\/i> (2002) won recognition at the SXSW Film Festival in 2005 (even though the film actually debuted three years earlier). His first two films helped to define a film movement that captured the awkward social interactions of his own generation, as his characters attempted to navigate interpersonal relationships consisting of mixed signals and crushes on friends in a time of diminished economic expectations. In 2013, technology has become the new religion, controlling virtually every aspect of our lives. While it has been amazingly transformative \u2013 there is no question we are addicted to the minicomputers we carry around in our purses and pockets \u2013 it is also largely replacing jobs formerly done by humans, which has relegated many younger people, such as the ones who populated Bujalski\u2019s earlier films, to marginal economic status. By going back in time to the period of the early 1980s, Bujalski explores the world of nerds just as they are on the verge of taking over the culture due to their skills at computer programming.<\/p>\n
In re-creating the early years of personal computing, Bujalski has lovingly managed to capture the look and feel of a time we easily forget \u2013 before email, texting and Skype. In discussing the future of artificial intelligence, the videographer (Kevin Bewersdorf) at one point suggests it could eventually be used for dating, an idea that causes the programmers to chuckle at the unlikely prospect. Bujalski has a knack for nailing these nerdy characters with their baggy polyester clothes, overly large eye glasses, tie clips, and retro haircuts. His eye for detail includes a professor named Tom Shoesser (Gordon Kindlmann), who arrives late, along with a wife and baby who seem like strange appendages. Computer Chess<\/i> could easily be described as a study in gray and white. The lack of contrast in these images suggests a world that looks surprisingly like Eastern Europe during communism, an effect that Bujalski achieves through shrewd art direction and by shooting in a documentary-like style with a Sony AVC 3260 camera. Like Harmony Korine\u2019s Trash Humpers<\/i><\/a> (2010), Bujalski finds an odd beauty in the degraded image of early video, complete with breakup, lens burns, cheesy split-screen effects, negative images, awkward superimpositions, dropout, Academy aspect ratio, and various glitches.<\/p>\n Computer Chess<\/i> is a complex ensemble piece, with so many characters and plot threads that it is initially hard to get one\u2019s bearings. The film centers on a weekend computer chess tournament held at a budget motel. The competition is portrayed as a kind of three-ring circus overseen by its nerdy ringleader, chess whiz Pat Henderson (played by film critic and scholar Gerald Peary), who is eagerly waiting to challenge the winner. Much of the film involves the competition between various computer chess teams, but, in some ways, this is the least interesting material. It is the peripheral sideshows and characters who manage to steal the show. Mike Papageorge (played by Bujalski\u2019s school chum Myles Paige from Funny Ha Ha<\/i>), appears on a panel early on, where he\u2019s identified as an independent programmer. He frowns during the session, and when finally called upon, he tells Pat: \u201cI find the programming of my fellow competitors to be almost as boring as this discussion.\u201d\u009d Despite his bravado, it turns out he cannot afford a hotel room. His efforts to find one represent some of the most humorous incidents in the film. There is also the lone female contestant on the MIT team, Shelly Flintic (Robin Schwartz), who becomes a veiled object of ridicule for Henderson and the other contestants, as well as an object of desire. Mike Papageorge is the first to attempt to crash her room, but it turns out that she\u2019s sheltering her team\u2019s computer, which is so large that it takes up much of the floor space, providing her with an excuse for not letting him stay there. Shelly, who wears a heart pendant around her neck, is so painfully shy and nervous that she can barely speak. The same could be said for Peter Bishton (Patrick Riester), a program assistant from the Caltech team, who, in many ways, helps to hold the multi-strand narrative together. Peter will later get Shelly to help him run experiments when his team\u2019s computer, Tsar 3.0, takes on a life of its own by performing poorly against other computers, but not against humans.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, a group of spiritual seekers are also holding their own encounter therapy sessions in another part of the same hotel. Overseen by an African guru named Keneiloe (Tishuan Scott), the couples undergo group therapy by groaning loudly, fondling loaves of bread, and becoming reborn as free people. One of them, Dave (Chris Doubek), runs into Peter outside the motel and engages him in conversation. When Peter explains the tournament, Dave muses, \u201cComputers play chess against computers. Wow!\u201d\u009d He\u2019s a bit too over solicitous. Although Peter looks about sixteen, Dave asks suggestively, \u201cAre you married?\u201d\u009d As he leaves, he remarks, \u201cHey, we got the same color eyes, man,\u201d\u009d a discovery he\u2019s made about his own wife during the encounter session. We are not surprised when he later invites Peter to his room where he and his wife, Pauline (Cyndi Williams), are ripe for swinging. She asks Peter, \u201cHave you ever tried LSD?\u201d\u009d She compares Peter to Columbus, but she and Dave worry that he\u2019s not living up to his potential. Cats also seem to have a run of the motel, which Mike Papageorge discovers as he wanders the hallways. When management finally finds him a room after he tries to sleep on the couch in the lobby, it turns out to be full of cats, causing him to have an allergic reaction. He ends up sleeping under a table in the conference, which leads to his own bizarre engagement with the encounter group.<\/p>\n There are other equally eccentric characters. Early on, two guys who are not in the competition, John (Jim Lewis) and Freddy (Freddy Martinez), claim to be there to watch \"them get ready for the end of the world.\u201d\u009d One of the contestants, a British chap named Les Carbray (James Curry) of the Alliance team, extols the virtues of three Scotches as the secret to coding. Soon afterwards he smokes joints in John and Freddy\u2019s room. John raises the \u201cmilitary\u201d\u009d aspect of the game of chess and talks about government interest in the programming being done by these computer geeks. This induces a sense of paranoia in the stoned Les. He asks John, \u201cAre you trying to recruit me? Are you from the Pentagon?\u201d\u009d His sidekick, Freddy, comments, \u201cIt\u2019s like my uncle said: \u2018War is death, hell is pain, chess is victory.\u2019\u201d\u009d As the movie goes on, it gets weirder and weirder, especially when Mike Papageorge returns home to get money, and the film suddenly switches to higher contrast, grainy 16mm color film. Soon after, Peter\u2019s teammate, Beuscher (Wiley Wiggins), shares some startling revelations. Computer Chess<\/i> culminates in a final scene involving Peter in which we suddenly enter the realm of science fiction. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
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