MOVIE NEWS – Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender’s spy thriller, The Black Bag, has impressed even the most hardened critics. When two such big stars are directed by one of today’s most sure-handed masters, Oscar-winner Steven Soderbergh (Traffic, Sex, Lies, Video, Erin Brockovich), you can’t expect a big disappointment, but it’s surprising how much the judges loved the new film.

Blanchett and Fassbender play a spy couple, and when the wife is suspected of treason, the husband must find out if she really sold out the country. The film has plenty of gunplay and explosions, in accordance with the rules of the genre, but the emphasis, in accordance with Soderbergh’s style, is on the dynamics of private life: the question of how far the influence of unconditional love and trust extends, and when common sense fueled by duty takes over.

The leading world newspapers sing odes to the film. According to the British The Independent, the acting of Blanchett and Fassbender evokes classic Hollywood glamour, the American Variety critic calls The Black Bag one of the most cunning and sexiest movies of recent years, and Deadline sensually says that the film claws and bites in a positive sense, luring the older generation back to the cinema, who have long since grown tired of the circus stunts of comic book heroes. TheWrap strikingly states that the greatest strength of Black Bag lies in its depiction of human weakness, and Time believes that, in addition to Blanchett‘s overheated lioness, the cold iron logic of Fassbender‘s forced character provides the most exciting impetus on the screen. Screen International also guides us within the genre framework, saying that Black Bag is not as extravagant an escapist stunt as a Bond film, but in Soderbergh’s confident hands it can deliver just as deadly a blow.

(Black Bag – domestic release: April 3, 2025.)