28 Jul Black Bag (2025)

Section 39

I am designating this as the first ‘four’ of 2025. I allow myself only two films from a year that have this recommendation. They are the films that I think either changed filmdom, or changed me and it is rare that a mainstream film makes the list.

Also, just recently I dumped on David Koepp for being such a hack. I took the time to look at what he’s done since ’Snake Eyes’ (also a four) and came up with an unjustified life in art, so this is a double surprise.

But I have to give him credit for a script that by all accounts was not changed much. The ensemble of 6 penetrates the dialog, but of course Soderbergh is the star, with his dark framing, following shots and use of space in the edits. He famously edits as he goes; even if the story and acting were deficient, I would be recommending this just on the cinematic quality alone.

Plot-wise it is not long form narrative. Nothing develops; it is just a short story in three acts build around two dinner-table scenes. So we have that against it. But it fits two environments close to me. The first is that this is a mystery. It is framed in a veristic spy world, but it is very much in the Agatha Christie mould, down to the final gathering of suspects and revealing of hidden conspiracies. This punches my buttons, because noir, detection, and folding of this genre is all but extinct.

But it also is a love story. I lived in a world much like this and had secrets to keep. I am also in a relationship that is mature and solid where much manoeuvring is required to keep us safe — albeit with lower consequence.

I like the deep, deep references to films that have related qualities, from character traits/appearance to names, to simple props.

And finally, there are some sets whose architecture is designed for cinematic effect. This is a hard one to describe because usually sets are designed to look like the spaces we live in with usually hidden affordances for cameras. Almost never do we have a filmmaker that understands space enough to design a home inside out, to have the spatial effects he anticipates from where he places himself (meaning us) and his characters. This film is unusually dark with high contrast to emphasise this effect.

So space, mystery, mature romance in classified contexts, clever cyber weapons, internal organisational intrigue. There’s a lot here to savour.

Posted in 2025

Ted’s Evaluation — 4 of 3: Every cineliterate person should experience this.

IMDB