Film Review: Black Mirror: Bandersnatch

It's Black Mirror movie time!

Today, I'm reviewing Bandersnatch, which came out in 2018. The format of the film is interesting, to say the least.

Not all of the content is linear, which may be confusing if you're going to watch it, as-is, from beginning to end. From time to time, the show will rewind and the user will be presented with a choice.

Warning

Spoilers! There's a lot of surprises in store within Bandersnatch and they're going to be exposed here as I review this. Some of them may even be upsetting due to sensitive subjects such as suicide and mental health.

The Premise

It's 1984. Stefan is an aspiring game designer that gets to work with the game company Tuckersoft. However, as he progresses though his project, a game based on the novel Bandersnatch by Jerome F Davies, strange things begin to happen.

The Mood

It starts out light-hearted, with the imagery of the 80s everywhere. Until strange things begin to happen the further we go down the rabbit hole of Stefan's obsession.

As it goes on, even innocuous things like Stefan's programming notes leads to reveals of what looks like a paper infestation. It's both ridiculous and creepy at the same time.

The Characters

Fionn Whitehead is the protagonist Stefan Butler. Awkward, neurotic, anxiety. Tense relationship with his father due to unresolved childhood trauma.

Craig Parkinson takes on the role of Stefan's dad, Peter Butler, a caring but stressed out father. In some branches of the story, he has to play the role of sinister agent, but it seems to fall a little flat.

Will Poulter fills the screen with his portrayal of games programmer superstar Colin Ritman. Poulter is a personal favorite of mine - I've enjoyed him in Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Maze Runner and Guardians of the Galaxy. That eyebrow game is strong, and that cool older brother vibe he brings to the role is very much on point.

Asim Chaudhry as Mohan Thakur, the jolly but excitable company boss. Just did enough to not be over-the-top, and I genuinely felt bad when the character died in one of the story branches.

Alice Lowe as Stefan's therapist, Dr R Haynes. Don't think we ever find out what the R stands for, but perhaps that's not terribly important. She's there for some exposition as to what's going on with Stefan, and ham it up in one story branch.

Fleur Keith as Stefan's mother. Doesn't get a lot of lines, but she looks exotic, like a gypsy. I'm not sure if that was a deliberate design decision to show how she looks as part of Stefan's memory.

Tallulah Haddon as Kitty, Colin's partner. Colin casually speaks with her about being "in the hole", and I got the distinct impression that she knows stuff. Before that, the impression was all in her makeup and that shocking orange hair.

Suzanne Burden and Paul M Bradley as game reviewers. The look seems reminiscent of the 60s, which is weird because this is supposed to be the 80s.

Alan Asaad as Satpal. He's ostensibly a programmer, but seems to get treated like some kind of gofer in the opffice. The role looked superfluous to me.

Jeff Minter has a cameo as as the author of Bandersnatch, Jerome F. Davies. Only really makes one live action appearance in a jump scare, but it's so good. And, get this, this guy's not an actor, he's an actual games programmer!

Laura Evelyn makes an appearance as Pearl Ritman, Colin's daughter years later.

What I liked

There's a sequence of banter between Colin, Thakur and Stefan in Stefan's first "try", and in the second "try" it goes almost the same, with the same words being said but by different participants in the conversation. It's pretty cool!

The idea of being able to select how the story goes, is quite novel. Can't see it catching on, though.

This symbol made a comeback! I first saw it in White Bear. Too bad there doesn't appear to be a very direct connection.

I just about choked with laughter at this story branch. So cheeky.

Just the whole aesthetic of the 80s, where everyone was smoking everywhere. The clunky computer game graphics of that era. So much charm.

And of course, the numerous references to earlier episodes in Black Mirror. This one in particular to Metalhead.

What I didn't

There's one story branch where it's revealed that Stefan is actually an actor named Mike. That's pretty meta. Know what would have made it even more meta? If the actor's name had been Fionn.

Some of the story branches are gratuitous and a bit superfluous. I mean, do we really need a branch where Stefan chops up the body of his dead dad?

Conclusion

It's decent, not great. But it can only be a one-off thing, because I can see this concept getting tiresome if repeated.

My Rating

6.5 / 10

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