Perhaps the appeal of being a spy is having a state-sanctioned reason to hide secrets from your significant other. If they ask you where you were or what you did or who you slept with, you can simply respond “Black Bag” (Steven Soderbergh, 2025), i.e, you’re not cleared for this level of conversation.
Steven Soderbergh’s slick spy thriller borrows liberally from The Thin Man (Created by Dashiell Hammett, 1934-1947, various directors) series while providing a refreshingly adult take on modern spy relationship thrillers such as Ghosted (Dexter Fletcher, 2023), Mr and Mr Smith (Doug Liman, 2005), Killers (Robert Luketic, 2010) and Role Play (Thomas Vincent, 2023). Out with the broad comedy, in with endless witty repartees.
Riffing effortlessly on the delectable intersection between espionage and romance, this non-stop carousel of deception, subterfuge and sex prioritises wit over action and style over statement. It is all the better for it.
Michael Fassbender, following up his extremely serious spy role in The Agency (Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth, 2024), stars as George Woodhouse, a man with a pathological hatred of liars. In an early anecdote, we learn how he exposed his father’s infidelity and broadcast the evidence at a family function. His age at the time? 37.
He’s married to the much cooler-seeming Kathryn St. Jean (played by a Cate Blanchett firmly back on her feet following the shockingly awful Disclaimer [Alfonso Cuaron, 2024]), whose elegance and poise hide a materialist streak and a slavish devotion to her husband. Together, they are madly in love, but also, as both of them are spies, they keep tabs on each other — just to make sure that each other’s black bag isn’t filled with dirty laundry.
It starts with a list of five names handed to George outside of a London club: one of these people is responsible for leaking Severus, a top secret plan to… (it really doesn’t matter). In an early standout scene, the four other suspects are organised around the table like in a cosy Christie novel.
- Agent Freddie Small (Tom Burke, auditioning for Bond)
- Agent Col. James Stokes (Regé-Jean Page, auditioning for Bond)
- Analyst Clarissa Dubose (Marisa Abel, auditioning for Bond Girl)
- Therapist Dr. Zoe Vaughan (Naomie Harris, Bond alumni)
Alongside Kathryn, one of them must be responsible, but it’s up to George to flush the traitor out, spinning an elaborate web that spans from west London to Zurich to Liechtenstein, including rogue Russian generals, impetuous bosses, double-triple agents, satellite surveillance, drugged Indian food and heaps of misdirection. It might not have much of a deep meaning, but spy movies are rarely as fun as this.
Husband and wife spy teams (or adversaries) are really nothing new, but Soderbergh’s low-key take on the material yields a bounty of rich details. The dialogue is crisp (often funny), the acting is laid back and sexy, and the editing is on point (94-minute runtime!) The score is his usual funky, jazzy, bass and drum heavy nonsense, making the villainous plot to kill thousands of people feel like another night at the craps table. Softening things is the odd yet effective approach to lighting, with lamps and overhead fixtures blown out, giving the mise en scène a relaxed and diffuse quality, as well as a garish modern immediacy. When many spy thrillers, especially those headed straight for streaming, prioritise a cleanliness of vision, Soderbergh’s askew aesthetic is often strangely arresting.
There is a gun— and it ends up being used — but this is really a spy thriller about information: who has it, how to trade it, how to manipulate it. There’s a bit of John Le Carrè here, a bit of Graham Greene too. 007 (or Remington Steele [Robert Butler and Michael Gleason, 1982-1987]) fans won’t be disappointed either. This is spycraft at its most entertaining.
Redmond is the editor-in-chief of Journey Into Cinema.