Review: Black Bag (2025)

Steven Soderbergh makes it look easy. 

The filmmaker behind Sex, Lies, and Videotape, Out of Sight, The Limey, Erin Brockovich, Traffic, and The Ocean's Trilogy conquered Hollywood long ago by making movies that appealed to both audiences and critics. He was the rare creator who was able to translate his unique style and approach into movies that pretty much everyone enjoyed...and then, about a decade ago, he retired--frustrated by a system that valued dollars more than creativity and art. It didn't last long, but when Soderbergh returned from his brief hiatus, he seemed like a creator reinvigorated, telling stories in just about every medium available: he painted, he made a movie on an iPhone, he worked in television, and he created an off-Broadway play. He sought out challenges and set goals. 

Black Bag is the latest result of one of these challenges, Soderbergh's mission to bring the 90-minute movie back to prominence. With running times of everything from kids movies to comedies soaring beyond the two-hour mark, there does seem to be a need to bring things back down to earth. After all, the audience does not have an infinite attention span, nor do most movies have the story or momentum to sustain their bloated running times. As a 94-minute thriller, Black Bag works. 

Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett star as a husband-and-wife couple who work in British Intelligence. They're cold and clinical, but they clearly love each other. In a career where lies are the status quo, they've found a way to make their relationship work...or have they? Black Bag is a personal story of marital suspicion that's set against the larger conflict of an impending international incident. Soderbergh and his screenwriter, David Koepp (who wrote the screenplays for Jurassic Park, Carlito's Way, and Panic Room) balance these elements deftly, but are also not afraid to let humor into their story. The mere presence of former-Bond Pierce Brosnan as the mustache-twirling boss of this spy operation is evidence that the filmmakers are having fun--and the actors, too. 

What I appreciate most about Black Bag is that it uses every moment to advance the story. There are no grandiose Mission-Impossible-style stunts or action set pieces (Koepp co-wrote the first MI movie back in 1996), just smart, efficient storytelling that never feels rushed and that gives every character their due. This is not to imply that there is no conflict or violence; violence is here as a consequence, and therefore has immense impact. When so many movies spray bullets all over the screen, Black Bag plants a well-placed shot right between the eyes. This is a smaller film, in terms of scope, with a contained cast, which means that the movie is able to serve every single one of them effectively. There is no fluff. Nothing exists here that does not inform us of our characters or advance the plot. It's lean, and often mean.

Many of Soderbergh's hallmarks are present, such as the way he lights scenes, uses space, and favors close-ups of our characters looking virtually straight into the camera to create tension or a feeling of being exposed. His tendency toward ambient music is here too, as is his rejection of sleek studio techniques in favor of something more stylized and unconventional. I admire Soderbergh quite a bit for his rejection of the Hollywood status quo and his refusal to bend his craft toward something more palatable to the mainstream. 

Black Bag is not a "game changer" of a movie; it's not a blockbuster, nor is it a crowd-pleaser. It's often quiet, meditative, and requires the viewer to pay attention without having their hand held, which is not commercially-safe in this TikTok world of 15-second attention spans. It's an entry in a style of film that I call "grown ups talking," which is becoming increasingly hard to find outside of an arthouse theater. The fact that Soderbergh is still making movies like this, with seasoned actors who are still at the top of their game, and with a large-enough budget (reportedly $50 million) to effectively deliver a cinematic experience, is evidence that solidly-crafted and intelligent pictures are still a viable option at the multiplex, for those willing to seek out such fare.