Black Mirror: Bandersnatch

Bandersnatch (2018) is a film you make choices in while watching, set in the Black Mirror universe. Britain, 1984. A young programmer named Stefan is trying to turn a branching novel into a computer game. The book's author finished it while insane. The longer Stefan works, the more he suspects his own life is being directed by someone else. The clever part is this: you make the choices and the character notices. At one point Stefan asks directly whether he is being controlled and you are offered replies. The viewer becomes the film's villain. There are five main endings and over five hours of material was shot; an average viewing runs about ninety minutes. Netflix rewrote its player for it; the choices preload so the transitions do not break. A legal problem followed. Chooseco, which owns the Choose Your Own Adventure series, sued Netflix over the trademark and the parties settled. Some paths put you in short loops and send you back, and that is deliberate: the film is arguing about how free a choice is. It works without knowing the series. It runs about 90 minutes. Good for: interactive narrative, Black Mirror, and repeat viewing. Less good for: the story is dark, there is violence, and it does not suit passive watching.