For the better part of the last 25 years we've been hearing that movies can't compete with video games. As they advance in graphics and maturity, and continue to outearn most cinematic offerings, the perception is that video games offer an interactive experience that is superior to the passive experience of watching a film.
Enter creator Charlie Booker's latest entry in his Black Mirror anthology, Banderstanch. This is an interactive film, based on the conceit of the popular Choose-Your-Own-Adventure novellas of the 1980s, which allows the viewer to direct the flow of the film. It's the type of project we've been anticipating for quite some time, but has never been feasible for the cinematic group experience. Even for DVD this type of idea would be a hard sell. It's only because of the ubiquitousness of Netflix, and the power of video streaming that such an endeavor is even possible.
The "film", if we can even properly call it that, present a metatextual story set in the early 1980's, about Stefan, a young man who is developing a video game based on a pick-a-path adventure novel. As the film progresses we are frequently presented with options to guide Stefan...choosing breakfast, saying yes or no to an offer, deciding to react violently or calmly, those sorts of things. When the choices are presented (for a limited time before it chooses for you) the scene on screen continues to play out with almost unnoticeable stalling tactics, and after you make your choice the story progresses, in most cases seamlessly.
If you make the "wrong" choice, as would happen with a CYOA novel, your journey ends, but where with a book you would simply flip back to the last fork in the path and change options, Bandersnatch will send you back to a certain starting point or sometimes present options of forking points to return to. As you return, deftly edited sequences reiterate the path you've taken to this point.
Where Bandersnatch really comes alive is in the awareness that the "wrong" choices weren't without an impact, as the characters on screen experience deja vu or become confused about reality. Stefan is a troubled young man as is, taking medication and seeing a therapist are aspects of his life introduced early. As things progress, Stefan's grip on "reality" become strained, and he will, I guess depending on the paths you take, start breaking the fourth wall, his mind bending with notions of being controlled, but uncertain of whom his controller is.
Invariably, one's grip on the reality of Stefan's world gets strained, as you begin to backtrack on choices over and over again. Bandersnatch is a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book in the movie, it's also a game in the movie, and it's also the name of the story you are watching. It is many things, and it's aware that it is these many things. The metatextual nature is partly the point, that reality and control of reality are somewhat delusional. And in this case the idea that you actually have control over the narrative is what's in question, as many times the story leads you to where it wants to go.
It's not unlike a video game. Regardless of what video game you play or how advanced they get, you can only do so much with what the creators have programmed into it. Your perception of choice and control in a video game is still only limited to what has been given to you. As a storytelling vehicle, a video game only allows you to do what will progress the story they want to tell. Until you do what they want, the story doesn't progress. The illusion of control.
There's a certain amount of sophomoric philosophy at play in Bandersnatch, but it does provide a foundation for further contemplation once one completes their viewing of the "movie". That completion point is completely up to the viewer, as the way it's set up seems to allow the viewer unending opportunity to "flip" back in the story. It can get tedious if you've passed your second hour of what's otherwised posed as a 90-minute story, and there's likely a saturation point for most viewers. Even still, after spending about 130 minutes with Bandersnatch, I'm keen to revisit from scratch at least once more.
To criticise this experiment based on the story it tells is to overlook the experience, which is absolutely unique to the medium. The story, for what its worth, is a far cry better and more thoughtful than every Choose-Your-Own-Adventure story I've ever read, so there's that. It's pioneering, but time will tell if anyone decides to pick up the ball on this challenge and make it into an art.
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