In this week's paper, I wrote about Computer Chess, one of the oddest and most interesting movies I've seen in ages. It's only playing in town until Thursday, and it's definitely worth catching while you can.

Filmmaker Andrew Bujalski is best known for Funny Ha Ha and Mutual Appreciation, earnest and well-observed indie films about awkward young people. Computer Chess falls into that category too, kinda, but it's first and foremost an exceptional period piece, set among programming's proto-nerds in the 1980s.

Computer Chess takes place at hotel where a group of programmers have gathered for a computer chess competition. Teams of programmers lug around giant computers, pitting machine against machine to determine the ultimate champion, which will go up against (gasp) an actual human chess master. The aesthetic is so dead-on I had to double check to make sure I wasn't watching a documentary—anyone who grew up in the '80s with a computer-nerd dad will recognize the clunky glasses, goofy hair, and questionable social skills—and as the programmers cross paths with a couples retreat that's also being hosted at the hotel, things get increasingly silly and surreal.

The film is brainy, original, and charming, and while the ending is not entirely satisfying—I think this movie is probably best experienced while pretty high—the verisimilitude of its aesthetic is remarkable, even down to the old videocameras on which it was filmed.

Computer Chess is running at Cinema 21 through Thursday; that's the perfect place to see it. (You can also download it, if you hate leaving your house.)