In my lifetime at least, no director has done a better job of blazing their own trail than Steven Soderbergh. His constant jumping between studio and indie projects along with a dedication to exploring genres that span the entire spectrum of cinema has made him impossible to pigeonhole at any point of his illustrious 35-year career. His brand of not having a brand has arguably grown even stronger since he returned to directing with 2017's Logan Lucky after a brief self-described "retirement" as he's zeroed in on making movies that are experimental and (mostly) unlike anything he's made in the past. The 10th (!) project of his second directorial era Black Bag sees him stepping into one of the only subgenres he's never touched before: the spy movie.
As the real Soderheads out there would expect, Black Bag tries to take a different approach to the spy movie. There isn't a big action setpiece, kooky gadget or self-destructing message anywhere to be found. Instead, the film focuses on the sticky quandary that a top British intelligence officer faces (Michael Fassbender) when the list of suspects he obtains for a crucial investigation he's working on involving the disappearance of a top-secret software system that is capable of stealing nuclear launch codes ends up consisting of his wife (Cate Blanchett)-who is also a high-ranking intelligence officer and a pair of couples (Rege Jean-Page/Naomie Harris, Marisa Abela/Tom Burke) that he works closely with. It's a story about people whose job is built on a foundation of lies and withholding information trying to parse through what's real and what's not, and if it's possible for a romance to survive under the constant threat of deception. The whole cast-particularly Abela who saunters in and steals the whole movie from a group of heavyweights that have been acting for far longer than she has with her cheeky swagger-does a great job of handling all the fuckery and mind games that are afoot between all parties as this investigation plays out and both Soderbergh and his frequent screenwriting collaborator David Koepp build a grounded tension with the snappy dialogue and gloomy lighting choices.
Ironically, Black Bag's subversion of the spy genre eventually ends up feeling like sleight of hand. The examination of the romantic relationships between these characters and how they intersect with the harsh realities of their job are ultimately all in service of the classic modern spy trope of tracking down the magic computer program that could start World War III if it ends up in the wrong hands. On top of that, it's incredibly obvious which of the 5 suspects was responsible for stealing the program and the ending is shockingly tidy for a movie that spends so much time focusing on the messiness of spies being romantically involved with other spies. Giving off the illusion of tap dancing around cliches is considerably more annoying to me than unapologetically embracing them and that's something that I haven't been able to shake since I walked out of theater last Thursday night. It's particularly disappointing to see someone with the glowing reputation that Soderbergh has earned in the industry go down this road. You're supposed to be a maverick, man! Why did you have to break out the spy movie playbook after crafting a setup that had so much potential to break away from it? At the end of the day, Black Bag is a still a perfectly fine movie, but it could've easily been great and seeing that greatness fall apart so rapidly was really unfortunate.
Grade: B-
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