Black Bag

Directed by Steven Soderbergh (2025) ***

There aren’t many actors in American movies who can “do” stoic like Michael Fassbender, whose strong, serious face recalls the protagonists of early ’60s Ingmar Bergman and Federico Fellini films. In Black Bag, he seems to represent the no-nonsense sensibility of the film’s director, Steven Soderbergh: get in, do the job with minimal fuss and emotion, and leave before you’ve hung around too long. Considering actors of the opposite sex, Cate Blanchett, who can mask her emotions with steely resolve like the best of them (see Tár for sparkling examples), is likewise superlative at playing stoic. She’s here, too.

Soderbergh tried ten years ago to retire from filmmaking; the retirement became a short hiatus, which evolved into a full-scale and relentless parade of film and television making. Since his “retirement”, Soderbergh has put more story footage on film than some directors create in a lifetime. It being only March 2025 as I write this, Black Bag is his second film of the year. There’s still over nine months left in ’25, so let’s get cracking, Steven!

George (Fassbender) and his wife Kathryn (Blanchett) are both officers and (of necessity) spies working in the Cyber Security Centre of British Intelligence. Far from being a lighthearted Nick and Nora, this couple is highly professional, but with a commitment to each other that reigns over all that transpires. They have a tacit understanding of where their professional life ends and their marriage begins. A conflict arises, though, when George’s boss, Meacham (Gustaf Skarsgård, Westworld) gives him the assignment of tracking down whoever stole a nuclear meltdown-causing software program called Severus. He’s given a list of five suspects who work for the intelligence agency, one of which is his wife.

In order to draw out the traitor, George invites the other four suspects to a quite memorable dinner: satellite expert Clarissa (Marisa Abela, Back to Black), her boyfriend Freddie (Tom Burke, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga), psychiatrist Zoe (Naomie Harris, Moneypenny for Daniel Craig’s James Bond) and her boyfriend, James (Regé-Jean Page, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves). Unbeknownst to everyone but Kathryn, George has drugged a dish with a “truth serum” and the relational truths which are revealed aren’t in any way conclusive in determining who stole the software but do bring to the surface rifts between the agents. That night, George discovers in a trashcan a piece of evidence which makes him suspicious of Kathryn. Soon, an agent deeply imbedded in the situation is murdered and James comes to George with more deeply disturbing information.

Where does one’s loyalty ultimately lie: with a loved one, or with your country and against terrorism? George is put to the test in this tightly wound little cat-and-mouse game, put under further pressure by their department’s boss, Arthur Stieglitz, played with unctuous charm and a bit of danger by Pierce Brosnan (The World Is Not Enough). It’s apt that a former James Bond portrayer is the head of British Intelligence here, for Black Bag most resembles an Ian Fleming short story. The modestly scaled spy and secret agent-filled labyrinths of Hitchcock’s ’30s British period also come to mind. Alongside this stellar cast, Marisa Abela stands out as a conflicted official forced to help George under stealth.

Written by David Koepp (who also wrote 2025’s Presence), Black Bag is compact and focused. Those hoping for or expecting an action thriller in the mode of James Bond or Mission Impossible will be disappointed if not downright bored. A glance, an observation, an offhand remark, a subtle tell — these are mostly the means of carrying forth the plot and the viewer may not realize how deft and accomplished this method is until the film is over. Black Bag isn’t a masterpiece, but it is a joy to see adults, in a genre film made by and for adults, in the movie theater alongside the usual flying witches, flying Captain Americas, killer monkeys, Paddington bears and crime fighting dog men.

—Michael R. Neno, 2025 March 23