Mosaic: HBO's First Interactive Movie 😱

There are light spoilers ahead. 

I watched Steven Soderbergh's Mosaic today, starring Sharon Stone + my mind is now going at a million MPH. 

If you haven't heard, Mosaic is an experimental mobile film which can only be viewed via an app. Initially, the rumors were that viewers could determine its ending but it's not the case - the viewers select which character’s perspective they want to follow, but the ending + story remains the same for all. 

The way it works: everyone starts in the same chapter, then to continue, you have choices to follow different perspectives, all leading up to the grand finale.

Its linear version was released on January 22, 2017 - which I think I would've found a bit boring on its own, while its app version has just been released this November. I decided to watch it after seeing a Sponsored Instagram ad on my feed. TBH what excites me isn't necessarily the storyline but the possibilities that this opens up to storytelling. I highly recommend you download the app, link below. 

That being said, I really appreciated Sharon Stone's performance of Olivia Lake, a super hot, man-eating 50-something artist, with a sketchy teenage past.  There seriously need to be more female characters like this because they exist in the world and yet, they're seldom depicted.

Variety says: 

According to Soderbergh, “Mosaic” is an experiment in what happens when filmmakers ask engineers to serve the story rather than the other way around. “While branching narratives have been around forever, technology now allows, I hope, for a more elegant form of engagement than used to be possible,” Soderbergh said in a statement.

Soderbergh is developing two more interactive-storytelling series using the same platform developed with PodOp, the techies behind it.

 More info on “Mosaic” is available at watchmosaic.com.

Trailer below.