Don't go see the movie "Computer Chess"

Chess.com is running ads now for an art film called "Computer Chess". I saw it at the Seattle Int'l Film Festival this summer, and it's a stinkbomb. 

If you like chess, you might think you'd like this movie.

If you like computers, you might assume you'd love this movie.

If you like art films, you might assume this movie would rule!

But... it's disappointing on all those levels.

The actors improvise all their lines, and the "plot" (such as it is) meanders around aimlessly like my Queen in an endgame. It's not a bad idea for a movie: Get a bunch of 1970's video equipment and shoot a pseudo-documentary about a fictional early-80's computer chess tournament. Add in a lot of philosophical pondering about the growing calculation ability of computers, the nature of thought and the solvability of chess itself, and you have a decent idea for an art film. Watch Aronofsky's "Pi" for a much more interesting treatment of these ideas, don't waste your time with the excrable "Computer Chess".