On my future deathbed, I will reflect on my youth and regret the eighty minutes of life that were wasted watching this film. Screened at cinema Du Park in the McGill ghetto, Ivory Tower is a disappointing depiction of the rivalry between two brothers and their common love for the game of chess.

By the end of the opening scene, which revealed the main protagonist, Hershel, playing a nonsensical solo game, it was made painfully clear that director Adam Traynor and co-writers "Chilly Gonzales" and Celine Sciamma knew nothing about chess culture or the rules of the game itself. This ignorance was carried throughout the entire film, at times drawing insulting and inaccurate representations of the true artistry and intellect behind chess' greatest masters.