Black Bag

Steven Soderbergh returns with his delirious style with another skillfully mounted spy film titled Black Bag that’s in the tradition of some of his other caper films with twists and turns like Haywire, Out of Sight, and his Ocean’s films, to name just a few. Still, Soderbergh proves again and again just how versatile of a filmmaker he is with such a potent style—artful framing, soft-glow cinematography, quick edits, long takes, and master shots. Soderberg always brings a passion to the film; the dire need for cinema to explore underground subcultures, like the lives of spies, always makes for interesting stories.

Michael Fassbender plays a British intelligence officer named George Woodhouse who is given the task to investigate his suspects in his inner team who could possibly be a mole selling outside information to foreign adversaries. This film is Soderbergh’s third collaboration with screenwriter David Koepp (Kimi and Presence), and the film keeps you engrossed. While over plotted by design, much of the yarn is certainly convoluted, but the success comes from how moments and scenes unravel with a lot of ingenuity. We soon find out that George’s wife, Katheryn (Cate Blanchett), is also a spy in his circle. It’s quite obvious someone in their group is selling off top intelligence to the Russian government. George and Katheryn end up hosting a dinner to search for the truth. The guests include a fellow couple, Freddie (Tom Burke) and Clarissa (Marisa Abela), and another couple, James (Rege-Jean Page) and Zoe (Naomi Harris).

Courtesy Focus Features

George ends up cooking them a meal and spiking the beverage with a truth serum. The information George finds out is revealing, and there is another clever montage where he makes each of them take a truth detector test. The highlight performance is the performance by Marisa Abela, who brings a sexiness and sexual tension to the role that makes the material even more intricate. The dinner becomes hostile as the truth comes out, even confrontational and violent. It also doesn’t help that George has his trust issues with Katheryn, especially after unusual trips to Zurich. Everyone in the circle appears to be deceiving each other by sleeping around and cheating with each other. George goes to extreme lengths and uses drone and satellite footage, and Clarrisa assists in using an AI chip that reads the lips of the conversations Katheryn has with the men she is visiting on park benches. The whole secret plot ends up becoming more of the narrative’s MacGuffin, but the motivations and payoff end up becoming clearer as the narrative unfolds.

Soderbergh does an exceptional job of keeping the narrative going, in part due to his visual flair and elegant style. Even though the ending feels like a red herring, everything else is done with a lot of precision. The story itself is a very familiar one within the spy genre, but the way the film is executed still feels fresh. It might not have anything much to add, but Soderbergh’s film is spellbinding and a thrilling experience that conjures up a lot of questions. Watching this film is a pleasure, and every character and plot device pieces up where it should be. Overall, this isn’t great Soderbergh, but there is exuberance to be found in the paradoxes, and it has a touch of an old-time British spy while still feeling adventurous and free-thinking at the same time.

BLACK BAG is now playing in theaters