Black Mirror's interactive film Bandersnatch was bunged onto Netflix today (December 28) and critics are already hailing it as a masterpiece.
From creator Charlie Brooker and his long-time producer Annabel Jones, this dark sci-fi story stars The Revenant's Will Poulter and Dunkirk actor Fionn Whitehead in a tale centred on 19-year-old videogame developer Stefan, who's attempting to adapt a multiple-choice book into a digital gaming sensation.
The most intriguing part, however, is that viewers actually have the option to choose their own adventure, making a series of decisions which affect the outcome of the story.
What to Read Next
The ground-breaking feature-length episode has received high praise in its first reviews. Check out an early sample below:
The Guardian
"Bandersnatch is a masterpiece of sophistication. From a user viewpoint, it is seamless. When options present themselves (you chose with a click of your mouse), there’s no lag or buffering to endure. If you don’t make a choice, Netflix makes it for you. As such, it is identical to watching a film. As an experience, it’s remarkable."
IGN
"Black Mirror: Bandersnatch is a one-of-a-kind interactive experience that takes the best aspects of video games and movies to create a compelling story with multiple narrative permutations."
IndieWire
"If Brooker had taken a more literal approach to the idea of doing an interactive narrative, it might have proven dull. Instead, he took this as an opportunity to tell a story about how difficult telling stories like these are, really leaning into the meta opportunities provided by that approach while also indulging in some undergrad-level philosophical musings about the nature of free will."
The Telegraph
"The performances are great too. Whitehead is spellbinding as the progressively more disheveled Stefan while other characters radiate a low-key menace, so that it's never clear whether they are genuinely creepy or if the uncanniness is a manifestation of Stefan's paranoia."
Esquire
"Black Mirror: Bandersnatch traps you in a maze of madness, one that tests your notion of free will as you make Stefan's decisions for him. It's like nothing I've ever experienced in a movie, a TV show, on Netflix, or anything else."
Black Mirror: Bandersnatch is available on Netflix in trillions of permutations.
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