Tightly structured, verbose and eschewing high-stakes action, Soderbergh’s deceptively genial chess game of a spy thriller conflates the professional and the personal as one half of a married couple working for the same intelligence agency is suspected of being treasonous.
Review #2,970
Dir. Steven Soderbergh
2025 | USA | Drama, Mystery, Thriller | 93min | 2.39:1 | English
NC16 (passed clean) for language including some sexual references, and some violence
Cast: Cate Blanchett, Michael Fassbender, Tom Burke, Marisa Abela, Rege-Jean Page, Naomie Harris, Pierce Brosnan
Plot: When his beloved wife is suspected of betraying the nation, an intelligence agent faces the ultimate test – loyalty to his marriage or his country.
Awards: Official Selection (Rotterdam)
Distributor: United International Pictures
Accessibility Index
Subject Matter: Moderate – Spies & Traitors; Workplace Dynamics; Husband-and-Wife
Narrative Style: Slightly Complex
Pace: Normal
Audience Type: Slightly Mainstream
Viewed: In Theatres
Spoilers: No
There was a time circa 2013 when Steven Soderbergh had wanted to retire from filmmaking due to his disillusionment with Hollywood, but now, already in his early ‘60s, he is only getting more prolific.
Black Bag, after last year’s Presence (2024), is already his 36th feature, and is typical of his economical, at times, high-concept genre filmmaking. Here, he fashions a talky spy thriller that is darkly funny and also sexy without being overtly sensual.
With Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett headlining as George and Kathryn respectively, a married couple who work for the same British intelligence agency, things become dangerous when the latter is suspected of being a traitor to the country.
David Koepp’s script may be verbose, but it is tightly structured even if it had to overcome a rather ponderous first act.
A film about the conflation of the professional and the personal, and in this case, further complicated by clandestine national affairs and high-wire geopolitics, Black Bag sees Soderbergh having the kind of unadulterated fun that most directors would dream about.
“It’s been a while since we had a traitor to dinner.”
At this stage, I don’t think he cares about box-office results or how critics would respond to his work. He also already has a Best Director Oscar (from 2000’s Traffic). His ‘no pressure’ style of filmmaking means he is equally at ease in adopting the most pragmatic approach to the project.
While he is less formally audacious now than he was in his earlier years, Soderbergh continues to make interesting films regardless of subject matter or genre.
With Black Bag, he eschews the high-stakes action of spy movies (Pierce Brosnan has a supporting role as a senior intelligence officer—surely a cheeky nod to Bond), or brooding, atmosphere-laden works such as Tinker Sailor Soldier Spy (2011).
Instead, he finds an amusing but consequential balance between a thinking person’s film and a deceptively genial chess game, played by wily, potentially treasonous colleagues at the workplace, who are distrustingly invited to the dinner table.
Grade: B
Trailer:
Music:
Eternality Tan 