Black Bag Review
I’m a bit late but I was finally able to watch one of my most anticipated movies of the year, Black Bag. This is a new original spy thriller directed by Steven Soderbergh who did Ocean’s Eleven. And it’s written by David Koepp who wrote Jurassic Park, Mission Impossible, and Spider-Man. Plus it has an all-star cast led by Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender. What did I think about this movie? Did it live up to my expectations? Let’s talk about it!
The Good
Simply put, this movie was everything I hoped it would be. The elements that sold me about the movie from the trailers was the concept, the cast, the writer, and director. All of those elements were delivered so well in this movie. By the end of the movie I was satisfied with what it delivered. This is an original story from David Koepp. Like I said earlier he wrote the original Mission Impossible. This movie has that old school Mission Impossible vibe about it. I love the franchise, but they’ve turned into action spy films. But the original was still a small scale heist spy thriller and this movie returns to that idea. It’s smaller scale, there’s a star studded cast here but it’s not this big globetrotting film. No, it’s still a small scale spy thriller about these married couples and some of their friends getting involved. As somebody who loves spy films and really enjoys the original Mission Impossible. This movie is right up my alley and designed for me. People complain all of the time about Hollywood not making original movies anymore and everything being sequels, remakes, and reboots. If you’re one of those people that wants something original and fresh Black Bag is the movie for you.
So much of what I talked about goes back to David Koepp’s script. It’s a very tight script with not a lot of fat or extra scenes. Each scene in the movie has a part to play in the movie and tells you so much about this movie. What’s impressive about it is this movie is only 93 minutes long. The credits start rolling before the 90 minut mark. It’s an efficient thriller that doesn’t linger on any scene for too long. Very quickly you understand these characters and their relationship with one another. You understand that there’s history and a complicated relationship with several of them. Within the first 15 minutes there’s this dinner scene. That is very simple, put after it you know so much about the characters and this “toxic” relationship between Fassbender and Blanchett. With the mystery going on it raises suspicion about all of them through what the scene does. All of that boils down to Koepp’s script being very tight and efficient. This is great proof that movies don’t need to be three plus hours long to be great. They can be great and at 90 minutes.
Another thing you have to give a lot of credit to is Soderbergh’s direction. When you mix this with Koepp's script it’s part of the reason why the movie works so well. You have a nice sharp script and you get a director that’s able to pull so much creativity from it. The way the movie is shot and the ways the cameras are used in the scenes builds tension. With the characters being spies it uses the camera to that effect. Certain scenes it feels like you’re a fly on the wall with these characters. With doing a spy thriller like this, being fly on the wall adds to the intensity and thrilling nature of the movie. With most of the scenes being talking scenes being a fly on the wall is a nice touch that makes you feel like you’re in the room with these characters. Of Soderbergh’s movies that I’ve seen, Ocean’s Eleven (2001) would be my favorite. Both movies deliver a large amount of exposition with multiple characters. The way that he’s able to communicate so much information in a way that’s easy for the audience to understand I think works and makes it have a more distinct directing style. So many movies these days lack a distinct style to it, this is the opposite of that and I appreciate it.
From there, you have to talk about the cast. It’s the sort of movie that wouldn’t work if you didn’t have great actors in here. The film is led by Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett as this married couple. What works so well about both of them is they’re able to play very one note and monotone sounding characters. But since they’re world class actors they’re able to make them compelling. In 2024 and 2025, I’ve watched several of Fassbender’s movies and when you see a lot of movies you realize just how talented he is. I wish he shows up in more things, he’s great in everything. You also have Blanchett as his wife, who’s playing this very complicated character. You don’t know if she’s good or if she’s bad. Blanchett is able to toy with the audience as to which side she falls on. One of the fun standouts was Tom Burke. He was in Furiosa last year, that was my experience to him and he was great. He’s in this movie and plays the comedic relief character. He’s not a super funny character but he gets a lot of really solid laughs and one liners that makes him have more of a personality then some of the other characters that are intentionally playing more subtle characters.
Finally, the music for the movie is great and fits the tone and vibe of the movie. Like I said earlier, the movie has that 1996 Mission Impossible vibe to it. While this movie doesn’t have the iconic theme like Mission Impossible, it’s not copying that music. But it has that vibe of characters sneaking around and having to be quick in certain situations to not be caught. It has that cool subtle vibe that the entire movie is going for. The composer of the movie, David Holmes also scored the Oceans trilogy has a similar score and vibe to it. It helps pull the movie together and fill in the gaps in the movie.
The Bad
The first thing that comes to mind here is the middle act can have some passing issues. The first and third acts are certainly stronger than the middle act. It’s not that they should have cleaned things up because it is already a 93 minute long movie. But I didn’t feel like there were enough exciting moments like there were at the beginning and end of the movie. If they added in a scene or two of suspense this issue could go away. I don’t even mean that the middle act was bad and boring. It’s more so a positive to show how good the first and third acts are.
Also while it is great to see Pierce Brosnan in a movie like this, he is underused in the movie. He’s playing a very stereotypical British government official and that’s about it. It’s probably 25-30 minutes before he’s introduced and he doesn’t get his moment to shine for another 25 minutes. The only reason why the character is memorable is because it’s Brosnan who makes lines of dialogue sound more important.
Final Thoughts: Black Bag to me is the first great movie of 2025. There’s been some good ones, I’ve enjoyed some. Black Bag is a great movie that I was invested in from beginning to end. It’s a genre that I love with a great script, great direction, and a great cast that makes for a movie that’s very much designed for me. If you’re looking for an original spy thriller that has the 1996 Mission Impossible vibe to it, this is a must watch. Go out and support original movies!
The Score: 9.0/10 (A-)
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