Black Bag

 

Director Steven Soderbergh

Soderbergh behind the camera

Soderbergh on the set with Michael Fassbender

Soderbergh with screenwriter David Koepp

screenwriter David Koepp

musical composer David Holmes

BLACK BAG             B+                                                                                                             USA  (93 mi)  2025  d: Steven Soderbergh

Whatever you may say about the films of Steven Soderbergh, one thing you can count on is that they will be stylishly entertaining, in this case like being immersed in the middle of a John Le Carré spy novel.  The maker of SEX, LIES, AND VIDEOTAPE (1989), one of the most influential catalysts of the 1990’s independent film movement, leading to Out of Sight (1998), The Limey (1999), and Traffic (2000), which remain among Soderbergh’s best films, all made at the height of his creative peak, yet this feels more along the lines of Haywire (2011), moving invisibly through a world of espionage, double agents, government cover ups, and secret identities, where the one certainty is never trusting anyone.  Soderbergh indicated he wanted this film to feel like the espionage version of Mike Nichols’ Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), but it doesn’t have that kind of verbal pyrotechnics, as it’s much too sublimated for that, avoiding the high-octane action sequences typical of spy thrillers, instead there’s a unique focus on the interior psychology of the characters, where it actually feels more like an Agatha Christie novel, a spy thriller that’s also an interpersonal relationship movie, with a terrific ensemble cast that continuously plays mind games with each other, where Soderbergh’s bag of tricks is in stark contrast to Tomas Alfredson’s much more somber and subdued Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011).  Given the state of the world at the moment, where lying and disinformation have become the new normal, with nations sabotaging and undermining their own people to prevent the truth from ever coming out, we are living by new rules of engagement, where we suddenly find ourselves mired in a labyrinthian sci-fi dystopia, where we may never see the light of day, as the odds are continually stacked against us, with Soderbergh having a little fun at our expense, poking holes in our perceived covers, twisting the knife in what was once conceived as an open democracy.  Nowadays all bets are off, with this film demonstrating just how convoluted and confusing it has become, with the power brokers dangling the strings, making us believe whatever the hell they want us to believe, closing off all avenues of the real truth, while wrapping it all up in a mirage of freedom and democracy.  Having written three of the director’s last four movies, including his minimalist ghost story PRESENCE (2024), released just two months ago, the ridiculously talented and successful screenwriter David Koepp has written more than thirty feature films, including a wide variety of genres, with U.S. box office receipts grossing over $2.6 billion, making him the fourth most successful American screenwriter of all time (Top Grossing Screenwriter at the Domestic Box Office), though evaluating who is “best” is another story (The 100 Best Screenwriters of All Time), consulting with actual spies to write this movie, which is simply immersed in the culture of keeping secrets, which extends into personal relationships, including marriage, where confidential things that are off-limits for discussion are kept in a “black bag.”  That’s the amusing premise for the film, with Soderbergh having fun subverting genre expectations, becoming a puzzle piece that turns into fun and games, where if you can lie about everything, then how do you tell the truth about anything?  Perhaps unintentionally, that’s the real dilemma of living in America at the moment, where it’s like living under the Russian KGB, as everything is filtered through a wall of authoritative threats and manipulated disinformation.  Lies and cover-ups, along with a blatantly racist disregard for even the barest trace of historical diversity, are the cultural cornerstones that have literally replaced truth and honesty in American politics, the exact opposite of the Watergate era of the 1970’s, which opened a new door of ethics reform along with journalistic integrity and transparency.          

Using chapter headings counting down the days, one by one, this moody, atmospheric film is driven by a remarkable soundtrack written by Irish musician David Holmes, who has written the music for dozens of films going back to Soderbergh’s Out of Sight working with the director on and off for decades, Black Bag 2025 Soundtrack | Black Bag - David Holmes ... YouTube (1:09).  The super-modern, stylish look of the film is captured by none other than the director as cinematographer, working under a lifelong pseudonym Peter Andrews, while also editing the film under the pseudonym Mary Ann Bernard, where the sterile rooms and office spaces of Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) are void of color or personality, much of it mimicking the sepia tones of David Fincher’s Se7en (1995), swamped by an uneasiness that persists throughout, like an underlying gloom that permeates through every character.  In a superbly constructed opening sequence filled with suspense, the camera follows British intelligence office George Woodhouse (Michael Fassbender) in a Scorsese-like, single-take opening shot through the underground walkways of an upscale, carefully guarded London nightclub, leading to a private VIP vaping room, with darkness saturating every frame, as his superior, Mr. Meacham (Gustaf Skarsgård), contends “There’s a stranger in our house,” ordering him to investigate a leak in the intelligence service, specifically the theft of a top secret cyberweapon code-named Severus, a biological weapon capable of killing thousands, where one of the five suspects who have access to it is his wife, Kathryn (Cate Blanchett), given one week to find the culprit before it activates.  Adding to the intrigue, Meacham is poisoned and killed by morning, made to look like a heart attack, with a covert murder operation suddenly infiltrating the picture, where clearly there is trouble in the ranks.  Something of a twisty cat and mouse tale, perhaps the oddest juxtaposition is an early scene of the Woodhouse’s hosting a dinner party inviting all the suspects to their swanky townhouse, including a smug intelligence analyst Freddie Smalls (Tom Burke) and his sharp and savvy girlfriend Clarrisa Dubose (Marisa Abela), a junior agent and cyber technology expert, also the ever-observant, in-house psychiatrist Dr. Zoe Vaughn (Naomie Harris) and her dapperly dressed, recently promoted, second-in-command boyfriend Col. James Stokes (Regé-Jean Page).  This social gathering with fellow spies allows George to secretly place a psychotropic drug in the curry, lowering their inhibitions, creating an opportunity to observe their reactions, as interactions among the group frequently spark subtle shifts in the mood, where a brief glance, a subtle change in tone, or a hesitant remark speaks volumes, enriching the overall fabric of the narrative.  This opportunity allows secrets to be revealed, most of a private nature, exposing cracks and infidelities in each relationship, where a culture trained to deceive simply makes cheating too easy, growing very testy with one another, often driven by their own personal ambitions, featuring stellar dialogue that is delivered at a crisp pace, almost like a screwball comedy, Black Bag Movie Clip - Nothing I Couldn't Handle (2025) YouTube (1:04), recalling the infamous dinner parties hosted by married couple Nick and Nora Charles, a romantically involved detective duo known for their witty banter in W.S. Van Dyke’s THE THIN MAN (1934), where the dinner invite was a glamorous way to flush out the decisive clues to solve a case.  Outing Freddie as a serial cheater, George meticulously details his predictable sexual promiscuity, a provocation that prompts Clarissa to furiously retaliate by stabbing him on his hand with a steak knife.  Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.  While it’s a brilliantly conceived scene, allowing deeply repressed emotions to suddenly erupt to the surface, it also sets the stage for what follows, exposing what has to be the ultimate in workplace romances with the potential for dire consequences, as we’re dealing with clandestine operations that rarely see the light of day, so the film literally toys with the possibilities, poking fun of the somber nature of the business, but also cleverly finding humor at every turn with witty insinuations and quick retorts.       

The sanctity of marriage is broken when George finds a theater ticket stub in his wife’s trash, contradicting her version of events, so he breaks into her office and learns she’s secretly traveling to Zurich without telling him, testing the loyalty to his wife or his country.  His response, completely reflective of their power dynamic, is one of the more ingeniously conceived, diabolically clever scenes of the film, requiring the expertise of Clarissa to redirect a spy satellite while deceiving the agency’s satellite video screens, watched like a hawk by the man in charge, a silver-haired Pierce Brosnan (a playful take on his late 90’s version of 007 himself!) as Arthur Steiglitz, going offscreen for a mere minute or so to allow George to spy on his wife in Zurich meeting someone of interest, a hilarious example of the extent marital partners are willing to go to find out what they want about the other, Black Bag Movie Clip - It's the Only Way - video Dailymotion YouTube (45 seconds), where the wrinkle is a split-second glitch exposing their shenanigans, a subliminal moment and potentially disastrous occurrence that could expose his dirty tricks.  This marital relationship is at the heart of the picture, as it thrives on secrets and lies, yet relies upon trust, a kind of marriage that is unique to cinema, held together by a mutual understanding of the lies they live in, where the wheels of power are forever changing, as both are deliberate, smooth, rarely cracking a smile, where a certain frostiness and cold precision is required in their profession.  George is a cold and clinical character, robotic, seemingly inhuman, like an A.I. invention, never revealing an inner life, yet super intelligent, as his views are rarely challenged, while Kathryn is more socially amenable, a master of disguise moving about with an icy calmness, with a wardrobe right out of Todd Haynes’ 2015 Top Ten List #6 Carol, where her natural disposition tends to put people at ease, allowing her to more easily gain people’s trust, including her husband, but the open question is whether there’s been a breach in their marriage, and whether she’s undermined official state secrets, becoming that mole in their midst.  This see-saw affair of shifting perspectives is the engine that generates the understated power of the picture, where everyone’s a suspect, yet the more George investigates, the more all the clues lead to his wife, delving into moral complications, yet what’s a spy thriller without the spies spying on each other?  When George and Kathryn compare notes and suspect they’re being set up, using each against the other, George shrewdly conducts polygraphs tests that mix the personal with the professional, anything to make each suspect feel precariously offguard, yet his interview with Clarissa, with Abela stealing every scene she’s in, is drop dead hilarious, as she’s devised bizarre methods to beat the test, which truly impresses the usually unflappable George, who is supposedly unparalleled in the art of psychological manipulation, taking this into unfamiliar territory while adding a bit of spice to the mix, Black Bag Exclusive Movie Clip - Polygraph Tests (2025) YouTube (59 seconds).  This sequence is cleverly edited, moving rapidly between agents, merging the personalities of everyone involved, like a musical crescendo, leading to yet another classic dinner sequence designed to catch the culprit, with Kathryn remarking, “It’s been a while since we’ve had a traitor to dinner, at least knowingly,” Black Bag | Official Clip | Cate Blanchett, Michael Fassbender YouTube (1:06), a wonderful return to form for Soderbergh, whose cinematic sophistication really shines.  Something of a throwback to those paranoid conspiracy flicks of the 1970’s, deliciously entertaining at every turn, this is masterful filmmaking, immersing viewers in a sordid universe that we are typically excluded from, yet here we’re given a front row seat in what is easily one of Soderbergh’s best films in years.

The Souvenir

Director Joanna Hogg

THE SOUVENIR                  B+                  

Great Britain  USA  (119 mi)  2019 d:  Joanna Hogg            Official site    

When I am dead, my dearest,
         Sing no sad songs for me;
Plant thou no roses at my head,
         Nor shady cypress tree:
Be the green grass above me
         With showers and dewdrops wet:
And if thou wilt, remember,
         And if thou wilt, forget.

―Song, by Christina Rossetti from Goblin Market and Other Poems, 1862, though written in 1848 as a teenager

As dismal and depressing as film gets, which is a courageous statement to make as an artist, but this one makes you want to jump off a bridge and end it all, where it’s relentlessly downbeat until the final shot, actually more of a roller coaster to hell.  If you stick through the end credits, it reveals this is the first of two parts, so there’s more of this to sit through.  That said, the film is superbly acted and directed, and while autobiographical of the writer/director, based on her real-life experiences while attending film school in London in the early 1980’s, it creates a captivating visual and emotional landscape all its own, not feeling like other films, basically discovering new ground while exploring the horrid effects of a toxic relationship.  The director gets inside the wounded soul of a young woman who is enchanted by first love, even after she realizes the devastating effects, with viewers cringing with horror at her choice not to pull away, remaining a true partner, steadfast and loyal, even while her partner wastes away the best years of his life, poisoning what’s left of their love, yet the director is somehow able to remain detached from it all and allow cinematographer David Raedecker to simply observe with an artistic eye as a woman from the upper crust of British society refuses to let go of what she believes is the best thing that ever happened to her.  Charming and naïve, she may be, yet she’s no fool, initially flabbergasted to discover purely by accident that her partner is a “habitual drug user,” ignoring the marks on his arm, unable to even conceive such a doomed path, as her whole life is ahead of her, yet they engage in a kind of sordid Sid and Nancy affair for the privileged upper class, clearly able to separate reality and illusion, but the reality that exists for her is just an illusion for her damaged partner.  The two players are remarkable, Honor Swinton Byrne (daughter of Tilda Swinton, who plays her mother in the film as well) in her breakout role as Julie, a shy but ambitious film student from the upper crust, and Tom Burke as Anthony, at least a decade older, who supposedly works in the Foreign Office, appearing suave and sophisticated, highly educated, showing a cultural appreciation, yet behind the spit and polish is smug arrogance and pathetic manipulation, where he pretends to be understanding but he’s a user, growing darker and more desperate by the day and by the hour, eventually succumbing to his disease, dying from an overdose, which is how the film ends, just as she’s finding her voice as a student filmmaker, where the final sequence of shots is utterly enthralling, staring straight at the camera, challenging viewers to put themselves in her place, asking how would they fare?     

Winner of the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, the director’s working style is of interest, as everyone was given a script except the two leading players who were instead each given artifacts from the 80’s, diaries, photographs, old letters, even the first Super 8 footage she ever shot, and then told to improvise.  Shot in chronological order, in this way the lead actors discover their circumstances for the first time before the camera, adding a more naturalistic style which the director was looking for in what is essentially a reconstruction of her own personal memories.  Hogg and Tilda Swinton have known each other since the age of ten, so she is familiar with the circumstances of the relationship, though curiously in the film Julie hides the darker side of her relationship from her mother who nonetheless stands by her daughter.  One of the more remarkable scenes is a walk together in the vast rural countryside where Swinton’s own dogs are allowed to run free, scampering ahead of the slower human walkers, relishing the unbridled freedom they’ve been given.  The stark contrast between this open, expansive image and the claustrophobic, closed-in interior world of the couple couldn’t be more pronounced, as one is sprinting ahead with no encumbrances while the other appears to be sleepwalking.  The title actually comes from an 18th century painting by Jean-Honoré Fragonard (The Souvenir by Jean-Honoré Fragonard – my daily art display), a depiction of young love, romanticized in a dreamlike reverie, showing a girl carving initials into a tree while a letter from her lover lies on the ground, where nothing else matters, as this is all that exists in the world at that particular moment.  As if spawned in innocence, this film begins much the same way, meeting an older gentleman at a party, more distinguished than the riff-raff she meets at film school, Julie is seen pitching her idea for a film before the older faculty members who are struck by the idea of making a film about something that is so foreign to her, insisting upon a story with a working class background, something she clearly knows absolutely nothing about, showing black and white photos she has taken of the economic wasteland and neighborhood ruin, revealing the harsh deprivation of the times, claiming she doesn’t wish to remain in a “bubble” forever pidgeonholed to stereotypes.  While this may leave them scratching their heads, she’s quickly given more practical advice, “The most important thing is that you make a connection between your experience and the thing you’re trying to film.”  While hardly a rebel in any sense, she resists all patronizing judgment and stakes out her own path, though utterly lacking in confidence, completely self-conscious about her life of privilege, wondering how she’ll fit in, avoiding the other students for the most part, caught up in a torrid affair that exhausts her time and depletes her energy.

Other than the jarring musical selections, there are few indicators that we’re living in the 80’s, yet Julie’s sympathetic view of ordinary people comes from caring for the forgotten, her personal reaction to the Thatcher era, with IRA car bombs making the headlines, blasting to smithereens any idea that peace in Northern Ireland is near, suggesting troubled times exist, which includes a bomb that rocks the neighborhood, unsettling the normal calm, where she has the luxury of safety and protection, with key moments happening offscreen, living an isolated life with a troubled man that has quickly moved in with her.  Told with a dreamy sensibility, essential storylines are omitted, like Julie confronting Anthony about his addiction, and large chunks of time pass without notice, yet the central focus of Julie’s life remains unscathed, somehow able to balance her boyfriend’s deterioration and instability with normalcy, retaining a sense of purpose through school, even as she scraps her plans of a working class drama and changes course in midstream, trying something different, though visibly awkward and clumsy on the set, unable to assert herself or express authority, yet films are made in just such chaotic and disorganized circumstances, where it seems a miracle that something lucid and coherent could come from that confusion.  Through a series of lies, stolen money, and a fake burglary, there remains an air of refinement, as they continue to visit such posh restaurants, including a visit to Venice that begins in tears of shame and horror, yet through sheer persistence and weeks of planning, she manages to wear a long flowing gown and visit the opera in high style, with operatic excerpts interspersed throughout the film recounting the underlying tragic elements of it all.  Anthony is a despicable soul that sucks her blood like a vampire while poisoning his own, yet she patiently stands by him, leaving viewers aghast at her willingness to submit to his loathsome behavior, enduring detestable insults and abuse with passive acceptance, continually begging forgiveness by kissing his hand, a gesture made infamous in THE GODFATHER (1972).  What this does is expose her vulnerability, making that the centerpiece of the film, with all the decorative aristocratic scenery feeding into the vague inexpressiveness of her inarticulate character.  Basically a coming-of-age story, it’s only behind the scenes that she gains confidence and grows, always looking rushed and insecure making phone calls home on a wall phone in between shots on the set, but once that door closes and shooting begins, another personality is emerging, which only comes to light after the death of Anthony, shooting a scene with an actress openly negotiating the terms of death, reading the lines of the familiar Christina Rossetti poem (a reference to Tilda Swinton appearing in her unfinished student film entitled The Rehearsal), as somewhere, behind a slow tracking shot of people assembled on the set, behind them all is Julie, suddenly staring straight at us, now emboldened, taking on a new attitude, with the feeling that the door to her future has somehow swung wide open.