Just two months ago, Steven Soderbergh and writer David Koepp graced us with their take on the supernatural ghost story with Presence, a “horror” film of sorts that took a unique look at the genre that felt distinctly like a Soderbergh film. Now, Soderbergh and Koepp have reunited for another fascinating dive into genre with Black Bag, the director’s take on the spy thriller, which also manages to feel like Soderbergh trying new things he’s never attempted in an already impressive career, but doing so with a distinct style, tone, and vibe that fits right into his larger oeuvre of work.
What Is ‘Black Bag’ About?

Through a mostly dialogue-free oner, Soderbergh introduces us to Michael Fassbender’s George Woodhouse, an espionage agent who just by watching him, we can see just how precise, no-nonsense, and serious he is. George almost makes Fassbender feel more like an android than he did in Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, and despite playing a similar role, still feels markedly different from the stoic assassin of The Killer. George is told by another agent that one of his five co-workers has stolen a technology known as Severus, and he has one week to find out who is the rat. However, one of the names on this list is George’s wife, Kathryn St. Jean (Cate Blanchett).
George’s first move to track the liar is a dinner party, where we get to meet our culprits, and where George has spiked the meal with truth serum. This dinner is comprised of three couples: George and Kathryn; Freddie Smalls (Tom Burke), who is mad that George passed him by for a promotion, and surveillance expert Clarissa Dubose (Marisa Abela), who perks up at the idea of George giving her a polygraph test; and the agent who did get that promotion, James Stokes (Regé-Jean Page), and the bureau’s therapist, Dr. Zoe Vaughan (Naomie Harris). They’re a group of professional liars, but who know each other’s deepest, most important secrets. Yet the trickiest dynamic is naturally George’s split allegiance between his country and his wife, and how he’ll let this all play out over the next week.
‘Black Bag’ Is a Fun, Sexy Thriller From Soderbergh and Koepp

Image via Universal Pictures

Together, Soderbergh and Koepp have been great at making extremely small-scale films feel surprisingly grand. Their first film together, 2022’s Kimi, was a COVID-era thriller almost entirely set inside an apartment, and similarly, Presence took place in one home from the POV of a ghost. While Black Bag doesn’t have this same level of limitations set upon it, it’s still relatively small in the world of spy thrillers. Yet the beauty of this collaboration is that it never feels small, but rather, intimate in its exploration of this group of six people and what is really going on.
The best example of this scale is that dinner party, where Soderbergh and Koepp lay out all the players and pieces, before we spend the rest of the week getting into the larger mystery at hand. If the entire tight, 90-minute film would’ve taken place at this dinner party, there would likely be no complaints. Every look, every reveal, every choice fleshes out these characters and this world, and by the time the dinner takes an unexpected conclusion, we feel as though Soderbergh and Koepp have effectively told us everything we need to know about who we’re investigating.
‘Black Bag’s Cast Is a Blast, Especially Fassbender and Blanchett

Black Bag almost feels as though it’s an interesting piece with Soderbergh’s other fun, sexy films, like Out of Sight and the Ocean’s movies, right down to the distinct and delightful David Holmes score heightening everything. Koepp makes it so every conversation these six have, in addition to their meetings with the agency’s boss, Arthur Stieglitz (Pierce Brosnan), is fraught with tension and intrigue, as we try to, like George, investigate the implications and deeper meanings of every choice. Again, that opening dinner tells us so much about the spirit of these characters, their openness, and their desires, so that we can make our own educated guesses without having to know their entire history. It’s a delight to watch Burke’s Freddie Smalls be a clever douchebag, or Harris’ Dr. Zoe manage her knowledge of the rest of this group. And in a cast full of greats, Marisa Abela really stands out as Clarissa, who is particularly hard to nail down. Each conversation makes the plot thicken, until the film’s very final moments of revelation.
But what escalates this beyond just a fun spy film is the relationship between Blanchett’s Kathryn St. Jean and Fassbender’s George Woodhouse. The two together are wildly sexy and fascinating, especially since everything about each of these relationships is often completely up in the air. They are both extremely dedicated to each other, but could that also be a front? Black Bag has a lot of fun with this core relationship and what is really going on with their love. While Fassbender is cold and precise, Blanchett is much harder to read, and it’s hard to tell if Kathryn is just a great actor, or if she’s playing a con that Woodhouse simply can’t figure out. For Blanchett, this is a smart, mysterious performance that she knocks out of the park, and for Fassbender, Woodhouse is both a great evolution of a type of character he’s played before, while also not feeling like he’s falling into a certain “type.”

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After three films together, Soderbergh and Koepp have proven how entertaining their partnership is again and again. Soderbergh has had a lot of distinct periods in his career, whether it’s his box-office star period (Erin Brockovich, Traffic, Ocean’s Eleven), the period where he started making films on an iPhone, or the period in which he released films directly through streaming via Netflix and Max. But this dynamic has certainly been one of Soderbergh’s most successful periods, especially after his short retirement from film.
Between this trio of projects, Soderbergh and Koepp can experiment and have fun with genre in ways they haven’t tried before, and Black Bag just might be the best example of how well this collaboration has worked up to this point. Black Bag is a tight, economic, and engrossing crime thriller that’s without a doubt one of the most captivating and downright fun films so far this year. With a delectable cast and Soderbergh and Koepp knowing exactly how to twist this story with each new scene and reveal, Black Bag is yet another example that Soderbergh can basically make any genre his own, and thrive in it.
Black Bag comes to theaters on March 14.

Black Bag

Black Bag is another gripping, fun collaboration from Steven Soderbergh and David Koepp, with a sexy, fun cast.

Release Date

March 14, 2025

Director

Steven Soderbergh

Writers

David Koepp

Pros & Cons

Soderbergh and Koepp’s take on the spy thriller is economical but expansive.
Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett are fantastic to watch play off each other.
Koepp and Soderbergh are great at setting up the pieces and letting us try to solve this mystery.

Just a few scenes of Pierce Brosnan is simply not enough.