Black Bag (2025) - Small and Stylish Spy Thriller Keeps You Guessing

I hate when great movies sneak by me in the theater. I go once a month on average, so it isn't often.  I just happened to have a Saturday free and looked at movie times, and this one caught my eye. It starred Michael Fassbender, Cate Blanchett,  and Pierce Brosnan. It's directed by famed director Steven Soderbergh.  Why hadn't I heard a thing about it?

Though buried by a lack of marketing or hype, it's certainly well worth seeing in a theater. Coming in around a crisp 90 minutes (remember when movies were this long??),  it has incredible pacing, a tight group of characters, an interesting conspiracy plot, and a little mystery worth solving all in one. 

A married MI6 (British CIA) couple hosts a dinner party with two other couples who work at the agency.  From this dinner, you get a lot of information on the characters and their motivations. This comes into play later. Soon Fassbender's character is shown evidence his wife (Cate) is a traitor selling secrets. He investigates on his own and is torn between his loyalty to his wife and his country. 

Any more spoils the movie, but let's just say the dinner party guests are all intertwined in the story. Every scene is critical for moving the plot forward, and the last act really ties everything together in a who-done-it way. When the movie ends you'll be thinking back on previous interactions and how they gave hints to XYZ.

The leads, as usual, were great. However, I felt like this was truly a Fassbender movie. His odd character George felt almost obsessive and borderline unrealistic. If you can roll with his odd ticks and monotone expressions, you'll have a great time. If you don't, well, it's only 90 minutes. The story moves very fast, so if you can't keep up you'll get lost and forced to catch up in a lightning-fast last chunk of film.

A random stranger's opinion -A very good movie, almost great. Definitely worth a stream or rental. Just don't forget to pause when running to get a soda or you'll miss some critical dialogue.

Grade: B+