Set in the 1984, Bandersnatch is the story of a young programmer named Stefan. He is devoted to and obsessed by the desired to create a video game based off a beloved novel named (you guessed it) Bandersnatch. The epic novel was a choose-your-own-adventure tale that reflected and/or caused its author's descent into madness, and Stefan is determined to capture its full breadth and scope in his video game. This being Black Mirror, it does not go well for him. But the form of the "not going well" is dictated by your real time choices as you watch the movie unfold.
Before you even get into the "is it a movie, a game, an experience?" question of what Bandersnatch is, some might even challenge calling it a movie. It is, after all, just the latest installment of the ongoing Black Mirror series. But where those usually clock in at an hour or less (like a typical episode of dramatic television), Bandersnatch plays out at a more traditional movie length (depending on your choices). And since it's the only Black Mirror to arrive right now, it seems to me very much like its own thing -- say, perhaps like the X-Files theatrical movie that was made while the show was still on the air.
It honestly doesn't deliver too extensively on the concept of being a choose-your-own-adventure experience. You aren't faced with that many choices, and many of the ones you make yield only cosmetic and minimal tweaks to the story. On the other hand, not every choice one makes in life is of monumental importance, so perhaps even within the heightened framework of drama, a narrative with too many choices would feel manifestly fake. In any case, at the moments that truly matter, Bandersnatch does have you swoop in and push the story in distinct and often interesting directions.
The system is pleasantly seamless. You're never faced with pauses, staggers, or load times as you watch the movie unfold. That, combined with the relative light number of choices you must make overall, keeps you dialed into the story fairly well. If anything, it would be the writing itself that takes you out of the moment. Bandersnatch is loaded with meta-commentary on the nature of choice and self-control, to a degree I sometimes found just a little too cute. But on the other hand, it was a clever justification for why this particular story makes sense being packaged in this particular way.
And I did get pulled in. I went in imagining I'd pursue the most intriguing narrative angles, working it like a story. But I found myself engaging with it more like a game, even as shallow as it was on those terms. My husband and I didn't want to make choices we felt would lead to "bad" endings (however appropriate they might be for Black Mirror). When presented the opportunity to essentially "rewind" and select another avenue or "roll the credits" and complete the experience, we found ourselves hanging around for more. (And we were glad we did. The strange ending we ultimately found felt far more rewarding than, say, sticking around after the credits of most Marvel movies.)
This all works in large part thanks to the flexibility of lead actor Fionn Whitehead. This performance really asks for a lot -- a wide range of emotional intensity, tracking multiple continuities that vary depending on the scene being played, being totally in the moment one second and brushing against the fourth wall the next. Many actors couldn't have pulled this off, but Whitehead does.
If "interactive movies" are actually going to become a thing in the future, I do believe they'll need to aspire to more than this -- more clever, more intriguing, more... just more, generally. But I did enjoy this one well enough. I give Black Mirror: Bandersnatch a B. I don't imagine I'll go back to obsessively explore other possible avenues within it, but I think it was pretty fun to experience once.
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