Black Mirror: Bandersnatch

As someone who was raised on the likes of The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits, I took to Black Mirror, their natural 21st century successor, fairly quickly. The newest addition to the series, a feature length interactive movie, is one of the most exciting yet. While it doesn't quite reach the heights of the best of Black Mirror (you know, the ones that make you want to throw out your computer right after watching it), it is a bold and exciting experiment in itself.  

Stefan Parker (played by Fionn Whitehead) is a troubled young video programmer living in 1984 era London whose ambition is to create a video game based on his favorite book, a Choose Your Own Adventure style fantasy novel called Bandersnatch. He's created a revolutionary style of gaming for it, and has a meeting with a video game company headed by famed designer Colin Ritman (played by Will Poulter) and Mohan Thikur (played by Asmin Chaudry) to pitch the game. Colin is surprised that Stefan decided to adapt the novel since it's writer went insane and killed his wife after writing it. Nonetheless, they are impressed with his design thus far and agree to a partnership with Stefan designing the game, with the provision that it's finished and available for Christmas. Stefan lives with his father, Peter (played by Craig Parkinson) and makes regular visits to a psychiatrist, Dr. Haynes (played by Alice Lowe). However, the more he works on the game, the more he finds his grip on reality loosening as he becomes increasingly convinced he is no longer in control of his own decision making. 

Charlie Brooker was tasked by Netflix to try and create an interactive episode of his famed anthology series, Black Mirror, and intrigued by the possibilities agreed. From a technological perspective, the episode is a smashing success. The interactive film moves seamlessly from scene to scene as the decisions are made as to what direction the story should go into or what Stefan should do from two separate choices. They start off simple, with such mundane choices as whether he should have Sugar Puffs or Frosted Flakes for Breakfast or listen to the Thompson Twins or a Compilation Tape on the way to the meeting (with the soundtrack changing to match each choice). As the story goes on, the choices get decidedly darker and/or weirder as it goes on, with one option that obliterates the fourth wall in a way I've never quite seen before. Of course, the entire set up of the story plays around with the fourth wall as the main character Stefan becomes increasingly aware of his lack of control over his own actions. Where Bandersnatch stumbles is in the story it is telling within this new interactive format. While it is clever and at times very surprising, there isn't a lot of payoff to the story itself in any of the possible endings. Especially when compared to the best of Black Mirror, it falls a bit flat. Still, I appreciated the way this whole thing was put together as it allows the viewer to go back and try again if they run into a dead end in the narrative or a lame ending. I also appreciated that at certain points when you go back to redo a scene to make a different choice, it's not the exact clip, but rather Stefan specifically acknowledging that he's done that scene before.

The cast assembled for this is quite good, lead by Fionn Whitehead as Stefan. His does a great job capturing his character's inner turmoil (stemming from his mother's death when he was young and the blame he assigns himself for it) and confusion as the story goes on, but also equally captures the humor and fun of the far sillier options that are available (you'll know it when you find it). Will Poulter has an interesting turn as Colin, who in one story branch becomes something of a mentor to Stefan in a session at Colin's apartment that includes smoking a spliff and experimenting with hallucinogens. Poulter makes Colin a unique character, who is a more accomplished game designer and someone who Stefan looks up to. He takes Colin's very blunt and straightforward personality and makes him and an engaging and intriguing character. It's easy to see how Stefan would be drawn to someone with such strong confidence. Alice Lowe has a nice turn as Dr. Haynes and gives her character a lot of warmth and care (except, again, for the joke endings). Craig Parkinson has the trickier role as Stefan's father, but still manages to make the character sympathetic, even if he tends to lash out in frustration at Stefan, as a viewer I at least could understand where it was coming from. He wants to help his son get better and find a way to live on his own, even if he's not sure how to do it.      

Black Mirror: Bandersnatch is a fun experiment in a new form of filmmaking, blending film and video game together for an all together unique experience. It's beautifully shot throughout and has some top notch acting, especially from lead Fionn Whitehead. While some of the tangents are riotously entertaining and spectacularly weird, at the end none of the endings (there's five main endings total) really pull all the wild ideas thrown around about fate, destiny and how much control we really have over our lives into a cohesive whole. It's an interesting format and fun to play around with but at the same time I just wish they had stuck the landing a bit better and made sure each tangent had a satisfying and memorable ending. As it is, it's still worth checking out if you're interested, but you might be a bit let down at the end.