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Crocodile is the third episode of Black Mirror Series 4 and, initially, centres on Mia (Andrea Riseborough) and Rob’s (Andrew Gower) car accident, which leads to a situation they’d rather forget, and which they’d rather no-one else found out about. She’s in a panic while he’s comparatively cool as a cucumber and resolves the issue.
15 years later, they meet up again while she’s at a hotel, giving one of her inspirational speeches for her work, and he turns up all in a panic, with pangs of guilt, suddenly wanting to confess in some way.
Meanwhile, in a completely unrelated incident, pizza delivery vans are driven round the streets by robots, but when a man is run over and injured, the company’s insurance department must investigate to find out who’s to blame – enter Shazia (Kiran Sonia Sawar), who uses a ‘recaller’ device to help witnesses remember the event, but it also puts their memories up on a screen for her to see.
I made a number of notes about this episode, but none of which I can put in this review, so as to avoid spoilers, but Crocodile asks the basic question of whether we can really outrun our past and misdemeanours, as events take a consistently dark turn, and as the saying goes, “Oh, what a tangled web we weave!”
Andrea Riseborough is bloody wonderful, as she’s as cold as the Icelandic air, in which the episode is set. This stellar talent is fast becoming and one of this generation’s best actresses.
As an episode, Crocodile is a bit slow to get going, but it has an ending that is absolute genius.
If I was being daft, then for the very first scene, you could argue that hearing a bottle smash in a nightclub isn’t very realistic… as clubs only allow plastic cups, these days. But I digress.
Black Mirror: Crocodile is available on Netflix now. The series isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but you can buy a DVD boxset of Series 1 & 2 and the 2014 Special.
Score: 8.5/10
Running time: 59 minutes
Widescreen ratio: 2.20:1
Director: John Hillcoat
Producers: Annabel Jones and Sanne Wohlenberg
Writer: Charlie Brooker
Music: Atticus Ross, Leopold Ross and Claudia Sarne
Cast:
Mia Nolan: Andrea Riseborough
Shazia Akhand: Kiran Sonia Sawar
Rob: Andrew Gower
Anan Akhand: Anthony Welsh
Police Detective: Claire Rushbrook
Gordy: Joshua James
Noni Harper-Brown: Adelle Leonce
William Grange, Dentist: Brian Pettifer
Simon Nicholls: Jamie Michie
Hotel Receptionist: Armin Karima
Finn Nicholls: Stefán Örn Eggertsson
DC Lydon: James Eeles
Felicity Carmichael: Ólafía Hrönn Jónsdóttir
Ali Akhand: Dilja Imana
Room Service Man: Sigurdur Sigurjóns
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.