Directed by Boston born filmmaker Andrew Bujalski, COMPUTER CHESS is one oddity. Bujalski is credited as one of the leading lights of the mumblecore movement. But, CHESS isn't about modern 20-somethings and their relationships. It takes place around 1980 and centers on a chess tournament played by teams of computer programmers pitting machine vs. machine and hosted at a rinky dink hotel. The 'winner' will play a human chess-master named Henderson (played by Boston based film critic Gerald Peary - an early proponent of the Marathon!).

But, that isn't all. The hotel is also hosting a marital relationship encounter group - complete with open marriage swingers - who's guru is proudly touted a "Tall African Man". So you have computer geeks, swingers and seekers all in a hothouse of WTF? Oh, and there's a odd Artificial Intelligence sci-fi subplot percolating in the background to boot.

Adding further to the oddness of the film is that it is all shot on video cameras that are artifacts of the late-70s/early-80s themselves - complete with grainy artifacts. It has all the glitz of old Radio Shack B&W security camera footage. At first, it seems as if this is a type of 'found footage' movie as the tournament is being filmed for a documentary using these old video cameras. After a while, you realize that all the camera angles and footage coulnd't be part of the 'found footage'. Initially, this gets distracting as to what is the proper Point of View, but, in a strange way it becomes compelling. Even the stuff that is definitely NOT part of the documentary is staged as sort of fly on the wall security camera POV. This really looks like a period film in a way that most found footage films don't.

For someone who made his name with relationship films, Bujalski doesn't create any real memorable characters here, though a few break through a bit (including a female nerd who is treated as some kind of zoo animal by the guys at the tournament; What?! A woman!?) The lack of a strong storyline or roles combined with the grainy photography will make it a strain for many viewers even at only 92 minutes. This is very much a film with a limited audience (it's made all of $66K in three weeks).

It's worth sticking with. In it's own way, it gets to the heart of man's relationship with machine from the quaint vantage point of the 80s, but, with a twisted eye towards our present - and, maybe, future.