We now have not one, but two Steven Soderbergh films released this year for the price of, well, two. The first film of his I saw this year, Presence, was one of his more successful experiments, taking the bone marrow of a haunted house story and using his modesty, gumption and clever misdirection to turn it into one of the more saddening portraits of contemporary fear and our vital need for connection I’ve seen in a while.
“Black Bag” deviates from that haunting poignancy to return to more familiar territory for him.
As out-there and adventurous Steven Soderbergh is dipping his toes into other genres, his work on Traffic (2000) and the Ocean films is a solid indicator he’s right at home with these thrillers. Not only is his direction still deft with the style he commits to adapting, Steven’s deep understanding of the genre’s pulse means whether restrained or kooky, the form is never lost. He doesn’t reinvent genres, he offers his own unique perspective on it to try and see them differently.
Glossy and luxurious with a monied appearance designed both to flaunt its opulence and contort itself for the sake of what was written, I believed the most praise I could muster was to comment on the production design’s sleek and modest elegance. Thankfully, enough stripes are shown to muddy the waters and reveal a more minimalist palette to reflect the duality inherent of such a clandestine existence as a spy while exuding an air of playful dubiousness, both anonymous and curiously absorbing in its atmosphere. Despite being centered in a two-story townhouse on a soundstage at Pinewood Studios, being transported into this espionage universe was seamless and expansive, illustrating a solid job at trapping us and the characters within their own sterile worlds of deceit and isolation.
Between its general sense of dissolute decadence and polished savviness, the presentation commits to the old fashioned espionage thriller template while maximizing its craftsmanship to the fullest extent possible. Soderbergh’s own cinematography supports that vision with a noticeable practicality and humbleness in this composition, not to the extent of which it was superbly executed in Presence but one that still harnesses that sense of intimate immediacy that feels both claustrophobic and oddly comforting; it also boasts solid visuals with the color desaturation and hazy, defused lighting being understandable choices given the genre but still rather trite due to its repetition in recent movies. They do help enhance one beautifully tense scene at a dinner party where the lines in the sand get drawn and redrawn so it still carries some weight. Editing takes its time, savoring and enjoying the discomfort it creates.
Many moments of silence are met with an uneasy tension settling into the most mundane of tasks, pacing is sublime compared to the inflated runtimes that define most movies nowadays, both Sara Bosshard and Ellen Mirojnick showcase impeccable, meticulous tailoring in their costume design, emphasizing sophisticated panache, and there’s an odd dichotomy, a curious contrast with David Holmes’ score in conjunction to what the unfold on screen for me. Maybe it’s because I’m accustomed to the more orchestral, bombastic, grandiose trappings typical of the genre nowadays but it took awhile for me to vibe and get into the groove of his jazzy percussive style.
It’s movies such as these that really hammer home how grey most spy characters are and for a movie centering around the specifics of those tangled webbed weaves, the performances are key. And many of them ballpark either in “glamorously refined” or “delightfully eccentric”. Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender are firmly in the former category while everyone else dips into the latter but everyone is terrific with crackling chemistry to boot. Some dialogue exchanges are genuinely cold and gripping, but then again, there is a certain….artifice to it all-an effort to sound clever, to sound profound in a performative display of wit and not all of it sticks.
There are three equally diverse lens to interpret and dissect this story from: either the less loud and showy blockbuster splendorous version of Mr. & Mrs. Smith, an old-fashioned throwback to The Ipcress File or a semi-realistic take on James Bond in metropolitan life….but they’re all attached to the familiar spy premise: agents hell-bent on destabilizing Moscow with a MacGuffin needing to be collected to protect national security. Yet the focus is mostly on the mole hunt and the psychological warfare between its characters dancing around each other to see if they can spot the liar within or outside their inner circles; it’s meant to employ the sensation of a personality chess match than an outright assault on the senses and as far as being different than what the genre normally delivers for us, it manages to carve out that niche. Playing out like a small-scale workplace drama without any action scenes, this appears to be aimed at the most patient of viewers, the ones who relish in the art of slow-burn suspense and a measured tempo.
Expressive amplification in movies comes in many different forms and this narrative’s choice to rely heavily on character power struggles being deciphered through constant exposition rather than explosive set-pieces was a gamble that only just pays off. The script isn’t knee-gripping or tense but by keeping the conflict internal while still chugging along like a well-oiled machine, it helps shine a border spotlight on not just the tried and true themes of loyalty and deception that define the genre but also the sanctity of marriages and the fragility of trust in professional relationships always one bad step away from breaking. Not many scenes in this are deadweight; most of them serve a structural or thematic purpose to what I just mentioned.
I mean, what else more can I say: this espionage thriller isn’t the most well-rounded viewing experience but it toys enough with its own restrained, svelte frame while holding space both for the performances to blossom and the narrative to utilize as much heightened elements as possible to sell you in on the immersion.
That being said, because the focus isn’t completely honed in on the Severus MacGuffin and its resulting repercussions, this whodunnit ends up lacking the high-stakes it boasts to claim. Not only that but its dependence on familiar tropes doesn’t deviate much from what we’re used to seeing, the limited scope and scale of its settings do not allow it to fully capitalize on its potential and the resolution is revealed so rapidly that the conclusion barely makes an impact, leaving you to question the necessity behind the film being so complicated in the first place.
Also, upon putting the pieces together on the master plan involving Severus, I nearly suffered a meltdown because the details reframe and boil the entire plot down to ‘the antagonists are the ones trying to stop a war…..and the protagonists having to punish them because their scheme got in the way of their marriage’. Yes, I know it’s not the main driving force the entire plot centers itself around and I’m probably missing a bunch of variables that explain this better than I just did but that one nagging component makes it nigh-impossible for me to look at this and not think ‘Am I such an asshole for actually wanting the antagonists to succeed?’
