Director Steven Soderbergh dives into threaters with a new spy thriller, Black Bag. With an A-List cast lined up, Black Bag looked every bit as interesting as you might hope. But will it break the mold and go in an interesting direction?

When his beloved wife, Kathryn, is suspected of betraying the nation, intelligence agent George Woodhouse faces the ultimate test — loyalty to his marriage or his country.

Review

Black Bag is led by a stellar cast that includes Cate Blanchett, Michael Fassbender, Marisa Abela, Tom Burke, Naomie Harris, Regé-Jean Page, and Pierce Brosnan. Set in the world of spies, the story hits the ground running with a leak. Someone inside their agency was leaking information, and a computer program that could cost the lives of innocent people, and George (Fassbender) is the best polygrapher their agency has. But even he cannot exclude his wife, who is also an agent in the same agency.

At a tight and concise 1 hour and 33 minutes, Black Bag wastes not a single scene moving us through the story, setting up the threads, and dropping subtle clues throughout for the audience to figure out who the mole is and what is happening. Yet the story isn’t so one-dimensional that only 1 plot is ongoing to be solved. Black Bag is a master class in a good, straightforward spy thriller with an interestingly complex yet straightforward story.

George’s answer to an early question in the film comes full circle as he answers it towards the end of the film, and it’s unique for me in the realm of spy thrillers that never seem to want to make the married spy couple thing work out. But for Kathyrn (Blanchett) and George (Fassbender), they do, and they make sure everyone around them knows why. The story keeps you interested throughout. The cast has a great dynamic amongst them, and they skip most of the pitfalls that so many films of this genre fall into.

Black Bag hits theatres on March 14th.

BLACK BAG, a Focus Features release. Credit: Focus Features © 2025 All Rights Reserved.