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Black Bag (2025)
Synopsis
From Director Steven Soderbergh, Black Bag is a gripping spy drama about legendary intelligence agents George Woodhouse and his beloved wife Kathryn. When she is suspected of betraying the nation, George faces the ultimate test – loyalty to his marriage or his country.
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The new spy thriller film Black Bag will be out this Friday, March 14, 2025, but we got to see a preview screening at the ShowPlace ICON theater in St Louis Park earlier today.
The Black Bag film was written by David Koepp (who wrote the first two Jurassic Park films and also my least favorite Indiana Jones film Kingdom of the Crystal Skull) and directed by Steven Soderbergh (who started with Sex, Lies, and Videotape and famous for the Ocean's Eleven films).
Soderbergh has a certain realistic way of framing and telling us a story, set in the real world. For example, when you’re first introduced to our main character, George (played by Michael Fassbender), you don’t actually see his face. Instead, you’re following him from behind as he walks through a maze of streets and alleys and stairs and through doors in a long one-take scene… ending in a meeting with his contact. This meeting set up the story: George is given a list of five names, who are suspected of stealing something called Cerberus. One of the names on the list is his own wife, Kathryn (played by Cate Blanchett).
All five suspects are then invited to a dinner party, so now we’re introduced to all the characters. We have the wife Kathryn, the young satellite technician Clarissa (played by Marisa Abela – who famously played Amy Winehouse), Clarissa’s bearded boyfriend Freddie (played by Tom Burke - who previously played Praetorian Jack in Furiosa), a psychiatrist Zoe (played by Naomie Harris from No Time to Die), the colonel James (played by Regé-Jean Page from Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves). One of these people at the dining table is a traitor, and it’s up to George to sort it all out.
Part of the fun is to try and figure out who the villain is and what their motives are. I don’t want to give myself a pat in the back, but I sort of figure out who it was – after a one-on-one meeting with George and some information were diverged. Even if I was wrong, I knew it wasn’t the obvious choice. It was smartly written, and it had a very satisfying ending.
Fassbender did a great job, playing a very calm and collective agent… even when he knowingly messed up. My favorite is his line deliveries for the polygraph tests. Just imagine a deadpan question from Fassbender: “Are you tightening your anal sphincter?” Marisa Abela’s delightful face was just so funny!
My only issue with the film is that the language is British and as someone who is unfamiliar with the terms “Black Bag”, you’re forced to guess that it’s a term for some sort of covert operations. Or “the boot” means the trunk of a car.
This is a Focus Film, and typically I would describe as an art film or independent film. If you understand that, then you’re going to enjoy this dialogue-heavy, smart, and thrilling film.
Black Bag will be out in theaters on Friday, March 14, 2025.
The Black Bag film was written by David Koepp (who wrote the first two Jurassic Park films and also my least favorite Indiana Jones film Kingdom of the Crystal Skull) and directed by Steven Soderbergh (who started with Sex, Lies, and Videotape and famous for the Ocean's Eleven films).
Soderbergh has a certain realistic way of framing and telling us a story, set in the real world. For example, when you’re first introduced to our main character, George (played by Michael Fassbender), you don’t actually see his face. Instead, you’re following him from behind as he walks through a maze of streets and alleys and stairs and through doors in a long one-take scene… ending in a meeting with his contact. This meeting set up the story: George is given a list of five names, who are suspected of stealing something called Cerberus. One of the names on the list is his own wife, Kathryn (played by Cate Blanchett).
All five suspects are then invited to a dinner party, so now we’re introduced to all the characters. We have the wife Kathryn, the young satellite technician Clarissa (played by Marisa Abela – who famously played Amy Winehouse), Clarissa’s bearded boyfriend Freddie (played by Tom Burke - who previously played Praetorian Jack in Furiosa), a psychiatrist Zoe (played by Naomie Harris from No Time to Die), the colonel James (played by Regé-Jean Page from Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves). One of these people at the dining table is a traitor, and it’s up to George to sort it all out.
Part of the fun is to try and figure out who the villain is and what their motives are. I don’t want to give myself a pat in the back, but I sort of figure out who it was – after a one-on-one meeting with George and some information were diverged. Even if I was wrong, I knew it wasn’t the obvious choice. It was smartly written, and it had a very satisfying ending.
Fassbender did a great job, playing a very calm and collective agent… even when he knowingly messed up. My favorite is his line deliveries for the polygraph tests. Just imagine a deadpan question from Fassbender: “Are you tightening your anal sphincter?” Marisa Abela’s delightful face was just so funny!
My only issue with the film is that the language is British and as someone who is unfamiliar with the terms “Black Bag”, you’re forced to guess that it’s a term for some sort of covert operations. Or “the boot” means the trunk of a car.
This is a Focus Film, and typically I would describe as an art film or independent film. If you understand that, then you’re going to enjoy this dialogue-heavy, smart, and thrilling film.
Black Bag will be out in theaters on Friday, March 14, 2025.
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