After finally seeing Black Bag in theaters, it’s easy to see why everyone’s been enjoying it.

It’s been a while since I’ve seen a good spy thriller in theaters, which is partially why Black Bag caught my attention in the previews. The story follows George (Michael Fassbender) and Kathryn (Cate Blanchett) Woodhouse, a married couple who both work for British Intelligence at an extremely high level. George is put into a seemingly impossible dilemma when a superior requests he seek out a traitor in the organization…and one of the suspects is his wife.

Steven Soderbergh

Cate Blanchett, Michael Fassbender, Marisa Abela, Tom Burke, Naomie Harris, Regé-Jean Page, Pierce Brosnan

Release Date: March 14, 2025

Black Bag is the classic spy thriller: the audience is presented with a seemingly simple premise at the start only for an even more complex reality to be unveiled. As the old saying goes, “in a spy film, nothing is as it seems.” As you quickly realize none of these characters can actually be trusted, you find yourself suspecting everyone, and that makes it nearly impossible to guess how the story will end.

This is where Black Bag really succeeds as a story. In a brisk 90 minutes, the premise is unveiled along with the relevant parties, the story turns complicated before resolving with all loose threads tied by the time the credits roll. So often I see films that run 15-20 minutes long, with unnecessary exposition or needless details. For once, I can safely say Black Bag is not one of those films.

Another part of what makes Black Bag work so well is the timeless quality of the story itself. Take out the few explicit references to modern technology and this could easily have been a spy film made as far back as fifty years ago. This is the type of story that will age extremely well because of how it was written and put together. Yes there are background references to the current events in Russia but the core of the story focuses on the interpersonal connections of the main characters and a story like that never gets old.

I also can’t get over how glamorous everything looks. From the outfits everyone wears to the stunning home the Woodhouse’s live in, this film should be at the top of the list for the award for Best Production Design at next year’s Academy Awards. It really felt like a glimpse into another world, a real, lived-in world. Making a home on a movie set that feels like it’s actually been used isn’t as easy as it sounds and I applaud the filmmakers for how well they pulled it off.

Looking back, I do have one small gripe about the film’s plot. While the plot threads are neatly tied together by story’s end, how they get there does require a few leaps of logic. They’re not impossible leaps and I’ve seen plot explanations that made way less sense, but another step or two in the exposition wouldn’t have hurt the final reveal of the culprit. That being said, the final climactic scene where it’s all put together is one of the best scenes I’ve seen so far this year. The tension can be cut with a knife and all the actors are on top of their game.

Black Bag is one of those films that can be watched over and over again because there’s always a new detail to notice. It’s definitely worth seeing this film in theaters if you can.