#REVIEW: “BLACK BAG”

Review by Nicholas Porteous for Mr. Will Wong

In Steven Soderbergh‘s Black Bag, Michael Fassbender plays a steely-eyed British spy tasked with uncovering a traitor inside his agency. One big wrinkle–his wife (Cate Blanchett) tops the list of suspects. If Mr. and Mrs. Smith were a couple of decades older and hosted dinner parties with their work frenemies, you’d get this cool and exacting Thriller.

Black Bag wields an impressive ensemble, including Marisa Abela, Tom Burke, Naomie Harris, Regé-Jean Page, and a perfectly crusty Pierce Brosnan–invoking Bond as beaurocrat. As each unsavoury agent weaves in and out of Fassbender‘s inquiry, it’s near-impossible to avoid crafting your own set of evolving theories and counter theories around who’s lying to whom, what they have to gain, and whether Fassbender can avoid a divorce by the end of the week. Soderbergh gives his audience more than enough clues and suspects to speculate over, but never gives away the game–until the precise moment he chooses, of course.

One side effect of rendering a razor-sharp web of potential traitors–everyone’s kind of a dick. That dinner party I mentioned–establishing all the pieces on the chess board–has to be among the most uncomfortable I’ve seen in a theatre. It’s borderline comical how much these friends and lovers truly despise each other. Fassbender isn’t a particularly likeable spy either–dry as hell in nearly every moment. If you thought The Killer would make for a rough hang, just wait. Sometimes I wished he would pretend to let his guard down for a second–even as a ploy to gain his target’s trust. It’s clear that Soderbergh‘s personal mandate for this project was to exorcise as much of that charismatic, winking quality we’ve come to associate with movie spies as possible, making every moment of personality–often emanating from Blanchett–hit that much harder. A gorgeous, jazzy Score from David Holmes does a ton of great work bringing out much of the Movie’s seductive subtext as well. It’s basically a collection of Ocean’s Eleven B-sides, and I mean that as the highest compliment. I guarantee it’ll be playing it at my next dinner party.

All in all, Black Bag is another taut, twisty Soderbergh tale. It may not be a mindblowing addition to his extensive catalog–more of a genre-driven jaunt. But if you’re angling for an enigmatic yarn of espionage that trusts its audience to think ahead, look no further.

Focus Features and Universal Pictures Canada release BLACK BAG in theatres March 14, 2025.