A smartly drawn spy tale. As sophisticated as a dry martini.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 1, 2025

This movie is Smooth Soderbergh. It’s brisk, engaging, humorous, well-directed, written and acted. You can put your brain in low gear and sit back and be entertained.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Mar 21, 2025

Soderbergh handles ensemble casts well, forming a constellation rather than centering any single person as a lodestar.

| Mar 20, 2025

Like Presence, it's an interesting genre exercise.

| Mar 20, 2025

In reality, this London-set spy drama is a coolly paced affair that luxuriates in its own cerebral suaveness.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 18, 2025

The cast of luminaries lend the thinly sketched characters distinctive personalities, but the real star is the technology of spycraft: Soderbergh grimly delights in exposing its eerie powers and potentially devastating uses.

| Mar 17, 2025

This all feels about as authentic as a set of dental veneers. The main problem, however, is the writing.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 17, 2025

Although Soderbergh’s approach has an artfulness to it; he’s telling a sweeping story while keeping the excitement mostly confined. The result, while self-contained, is gripping, quietly sexy, and robustly acted.

| Mar 17, 2025

The mystery builds to a wildly perverse yet suitably sincere conclusion that knocked my socks off. However, to say more than that would spoil all of the fun.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Mar 15, 2025

Mr. Koepp and Mr. Soderbergh remind us of one advantage that remains with features: the ability to bring a story to a rapid and satisfying ending. Lasting 93 minutes instead of 93 episodes, Black Bag snaps closed with a rewarding click.

| Mar 15, 2025

Movie-watching at its finest, in that its wealth of espionage intrigue is bound to be as enjoyable on a plane or on that comfy couch as it is in the theater. Just make no mistake: This is the most delightful moviegoing experience you can have this year.

| Mar 15, 2025

This is a matter of complementary craft; of two great listeners and communicators bringing rapture to every gesture.

| Mar 14, 2025

It’s all a parlor trick, hardly John le Carre’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, but Black Bag carries its swagger lightly, entertaining in its deceptive simplicity.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 14, 2025

a delightful romantic spy drama that cannot be missed.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Mar 14, 2025

Honed to an economic 93 minutes, Black Bag beats all the current worthless streaming thrillers for wit, pace, style and commitment to the bit. Keep it up with a sequel, please.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 14, 2025

It’s great fun to watch two actors of such calibre play these wicked games of mistrust and deception – it’s even more fun to see Soderbergh handle his story so deftly.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 14, 2025

Taut yet thoroughly laced with levity, “Black Bag” plays like the filmic equivalent of a skillfully executed espionage mission in how tight and exact it feels.

| Original Score: A- | Mar 14, 2025

A svelte piece of entertainment that feels like a vintage yarn yet very much represents our own current anxieties, questions of sustaining trust in relationships and high-stake careers.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Mar 14, 2025

OK, Steven Soderbergh’s sleek, sexy spy thriller can be too cool for school. But oh the twisted, erotic mischief dished out by dynamos Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbinder as married spies, still hot for each other but worried that the other is a traitor

| Mar 14, 2025

Endlessly entertaining, Black Bag is a masterclass in sleek, sexy, and intelligent filmmaking. With razor-sharp dialogue, visually stunning compositions, and a cast delivering powerhouse performances, Soderbergh crafts a film that demands to be seen.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Mar 14, 2025