COMPUTER CHESS - LFF 2013 - Day Three

Man, I loved, loved, loved COMPUTER CHESS! Then again, I think I'm its target demographic, if a movie as wilfully indie spirited could trade in such a concept. It's a movie that's geekily indulgent and indulges in the geeky, lovingly recreating a fictionalised computer chess tournament in the early 80s.  Director Andrew Bujalski (FUNNY HA HA, THE PUFFY CHAIR) clearly had a lot of fun casting a group of misfits and dressing them in massive 1980s glasses and ill-fitting suits, as well as kitting them out in the sexual and racial mores of the time.  But where the real joy comes is in seeing all those old skool clumsy computers and overhead projectors and reels of computer paper.  I could almost smell our old high school computer lab.  

To be fair, the movie doesn't really have a plot.  It doesn't really care about which team of brainiacs wins the computer chess tournament, or whether machine will beat computer by 1984.  It's all about the observational humour:  seeing a nerdy teen propositioned by the swingers also staying at the hotel. Or the well meaning IT professor trying to spin his programme's failure as a win for science.  Or the cocky, scene stealing Michael Papageorge begging to be let into anyone's room for the night.

Like I said, I am the perfect audience for this film.  I was laughing steadily throughout in a kind of nostalgic geek reverie.  But even if old tech isn't your thing, you've got to admire Bujalski's scrupulous use of in- period cameras and props to so wonderfully create the mood of the time.

COMPUTER CHESS has a running time of 93 minutes.

COMPUTER CHESS played Sundance 2013 where Andrew Bujaski won the Alfred P Sloan Feature Film Prize "for its offbeat and formalistically adventurous exploration of questions of artificial intelligence and human connections."  It also played Berlin, Sydney and London 2013. It opens in the UK on November 22nd. 

FUNNY HA HA - sweet, lo-fi romantic drama

Before the self-indulgent stylings of MUTUAL APPRECIATION came writer-director-actor Andrew Bujalski's critically acclaimed debut feature FUNNY HA HA.

The movie is shot badly on 16mm with a notable absence of deliberate sound design or clear visual style, although there is a certain reverse snobbery to the hand-written closing credits. To its champions, the lo-fi look of the movie cements its indie credentials. To detractors, this simply shows lack of technical accomplishment. (If you want to see how lo-fi can still look great, look at Lars von Trier's work or the astoundingly good AFTER THE WEDDING.)

The characters are a bunch of aimless, socially retarded post-grads. They go on awkward dates and have meandering, half-assed conversations about nothing. Central to the group is Marnie (Kate Dollenmayer). She's blown about by life - working as a temp, attracted to her friend Alex who isn't interested in her, and vaguely unnerved by the geeky but somehow charming Mitchell (Bujalski) who clearly adores her.

The unpolished and meandering nature of this conversation-driven film has been embraced by its champions as truthful and well-observed. And I certainly admire Bujalski's intent to tell real stories about the sort of people he knows. But to my mind, the dialogue lacks the emotional hook or clear structure of a film like BEFORE SUNSRISE. As such, it is, as Paul Varjack said in BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S, "that dirtiest of all dirty words - promising." That is, until you see MUTUAL APPRECIATION.

FUNNY HA HA was originally screened in 2002 and eventually got a limited release in the US in 2005. It went on super-limited release in the UK in March 2007 shortly before the release of follow up movie, FUNNY HA HA. It is available on DVD.

MUTUAL APPRECIATION - amiable people talk rubbish

MUTUAL APPRECIATION is a rather rambling self-indulgent film in which amiable slackers make inconsequential small-talk for two hours. Filmed in black and white with no attempts at visual style, plotting or character development, the movie aspires to the stripped down truth of Cassavetes but falls far short. The writer-director Andrew Bujalski seems to be pitching the central character Alan (Justin Rice) Alan is a slacker musician who moves from Boston to New York in search of the in-crowd and a record contract. He hangs out with his school-friend, Lawrence (Bujalski) - an apathetic college lecturer - and meanders towards an uncomfortable love for Lawrence's girlfriend Ellie (Rachel Clift.) These twenty-somethings bumble along with an infantile passivity and narcissism. The humour is patchy and any sharp insight to human relationships lacking. So ignore reviewers who speak of Important Indie Credentials and Enchanting Quirkiness. That'll take you through 20 minutes, but the next 60 are like being trapped inside a Cat Stevens song with the needle stuck.

MUTUAL APPRECIATION played a bunch of festivals and is currently on super-limited release in the UK. It's also available on Region 1 DVD.