Graham Greene used to distinguish between his ‘serious’ novels, steeped in Catholic angst, and his ‘entertainments’, which were mostly spy thrillers. The prolific Steven Soderbergh might make a similar distinction, dividing up his filmography into ambitious socio-political dramas such as Erin Brokovich (2000) or the two-part Che (2008), and a whole raft of cinematic experiments and genre exercises.
Black Bag may not be Soderbergh’s first foray into the world of espionage, but it’s the most dazzling ‘entertainment’ he’s produced in years. Unlike a James Bond film with its carefully choreographed chases and fights, it’s not the action scenes that provide the fun, it’s the talk. The script is by David Koepp, an experienced Hollywood screenwriter who seems to be enjoying his collaborations with Soderbergh. This is their third in three years, starting with the tech drama, Kimi (2022), and moving on to last year’s low-budget horror flick, Presence (2024).
In Black Bag Soderbergh makes an implausible story into a puzzle that keeps us on the hook for a fast-moving 93 minutes. Koepp’s research for the film allegedly included talking with real spies about their lives and work, or at least as much as they were prepared to discuss. One gets the impression that he carefully filed away all the things that were out-of-bounds, then proceeded to explore them.