Black Bag (2025) – Review

Quick Thoughts:

• Grade – A 
• It’s my favorite film of 2025 (so far)
• Black Bag is a stylish and breezy film that feels like Ocean’s 11 met Out of Sight and created a well-dressed spy thriller
• Cate Blanchett, Michael Fassbender, Marisa Abela, Tom Burke, Naomie Harris, and Regé-Jean Page know the assignment and are perfect in their roles
• 93 minutes! 
• David Koepp’s script pops
• Yes, this is a lot of praise, but I love the movie.

With 36 years of feature film directing experience Steven Soderbergh has gotten to a place in his career where can make a well-crafted and handsome film like Black Bag feel effortless.  A lot of work went into making Michael Fassbender, Cate Blanchett, Marisa Abela, Tom Burke, Naomie Harris and Regé-Jean Page look amazing as they deliver David Koepp’s witty dialogue (that doesn’t feel overly witty) – but the 93 minutes are so efficient and lean that you almost think Soderbergh shot it over a long weekend. Maybe it’s because Soderbergh and Koepp have worked together three times in the 2020’s (Kimi, Presence, Black Bag), or that Cate Blanchett can do no wrong, or after Prometheus, Alien: Covenant, and The Killer, Fassbender can play “the smartest guy in the room” with ease. Whatever the case, Soderbergh has made one of the most enjoyably breezy films since Ocean’s 11 (which he also directed). 

Michael Fassbender stars as George Woodhouse, a well-dressed operative who works for Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). Woodhouse is known for his human lie detector abilities which is why a fellow operative Phillip Meacham (Gustaf Skarsgård) gives him a list of possible traitors which includes his wife Kathryn St. Jean (Cate Blanchett), a fellow NCSC operative. To root out the mole, he and Kathryn throw a dinner party and their swanky home, and this is where we meet Freddie Smalls (Tom Burke), Dr. Zoe Vaughan (Naomie Harris) Col. James Stokes (Regé-Jean Page) and Clarissa Dubose (Marisa Abela). All four of them work at the NCSC, and they have a night to remember that involves witty repartee, steak knife shenanigans, and Woodhouse watching every move that each character makes. The dinner party ends chaotically, and what follows is a fun spy thriller in which Woodhouse attempts to save thousands of lives while making sure his beloved wife doesn’t get into any trouble.

The charming chemistry between Blanchett and Fassbender is reminiscent of the rapport between George Clooney and Julia Roberts in Ocean’s 11, and Clooney and Jennifer Lopez in Out of Sight (another Soderbergh movie). It’s nice watching a happily married movie couple who are really into each other because it streamlines the plot by keeping out unnecessary marital issues (Black Bag doesn’t have time for that). What’s impressive is that you’re able to figure out their dynamic instantly (they really like each other) which is a credit to Koepp’s writing, Soderbergh’s cinematography. and the costumes designed by Ellen Mirojnick (Kimi, Logan Lucky, The Knick, Behind the Candelabra) Both actors have worked with Soderbergh before (Haywire, The Good German), so the rapport is evident and and Blanchett agreed to work on the film before reading a script because she loves Soderbergh and Koepp so much. 

Being familiar with the always solid work from Fassbender, Harris, Blanchett, Burke and Page, the standout of the film is Marisa Abela (I need to watch Industry on Max), who gives a layered and and interesting performance as Clarissa Dubose, a high-level British analyst who is in a tumultuous relationship with Freddie Smalls (Burke). Whether it’s using a steak knife in an interesting way or actually enjoying the brutal party games that Woodhouse makes them play, Dubose is always a welcome presence on screen and it’s nice having a wildcard amongst all the veteran actors. Her polygraph scene is a highlight of the film and it’s fun watching her shake the unshakeable Woodhouse as he realizes how sharp her character is. 

Since it’s a spy thriller expect twists, turns, lies and a little dose of TInker Tailor Soldier Spy. Also, Soderbergh is a huge fan of the movie Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (his DVD commentary with Mike Nichols is legendary in the DVD commentary community), so be ready for some truth bombs and no-holds barred insults that you can tell the actors loved unleashing (Harris and Burke especially). 

Finally, Phillip Messina’s (Ocean’s 11, Kimi) production design work is impeccable and the design highlight of the movie is the house that George and Kathryn reside in. It’s a bit naive, but at first I thought that they shot in an actual house, but after some research I learned that their home was built in a Pinewood UK soundstage. This makes sense considering a large chunk of the movie is spent in the gorgeous home, but I never felt any artifice to the location and love how lived in and real it feels. Between Mother!, Heretic, Kimi, and now Black Bag, Messina is the king of creating incredible movie homes.

Final Thoughts – Black Bag rules. Watch it.