Black Bag new Steven Soderbergh film

Trailer.

Cate in a Korean wig.

Cate just loves supporting abusers like Michael Fassbender and Woody Allen.

I don't see Michael Fassbender having any chemistry with his female leads. And certainly not in this trailer with Cate.

More like Black FAGS!

The run time for this movie is 93 minutes. Earlier this fall, there was an article that Soderbergh's Black Bag would be his his longest running movie at 148 minutes. Now, it's 93 minutes? Another box office dud for Cate and Michael?

He's directed 36 feature-length films in 36 years.

I'm tired of spy movies, they seem to be a trend right now.

Review Hollywood Reporter

Variety

Fassbender is insufferable.

Soderbergh is not really capable of making a truly bad movie.

Didn’t he retire?

Fassbender’s fat bundle is all I care about. Any good bulge from both the meat and the potatoes in this film?

Why bother with Fassbender, Brosnan is hotter than hell in the trailer!

R13 - Soderberg did announce he was retiring after making Behind the Candelabra but he came back.

I will give it a watch because I like Blanchett and Fassbender. The trailer doesn't hold out much promise, and Soderbergh never impressed me. For me, he's a master at passing off mainstream mediocrity as edgy. Maybe it's that I had a couple of friends who were overly enchanted with Sex, Lies, and Videotape, but I never liked his work.

I kinda live for when Cate puts on either her breathy British or American Accent. It's like you can see the words as she says them.

I guess I'm in the DL minority by loving Soderbergh? Maybe he's more craftsman than auteur, but the Ocean's movies are pure comfort for me; Out of Sight, Traffic and Erin Brockovich all hold up; and of more recent fare, I really liked Logan Lucky, High Flying Bird and No Sudden Move. It rarely seems like he's phoning it in. I think it's great how prolific he is and I'm glad he un-retired.

I think Cate's is always bringing her deep voice with a stilted accent. Lately, she's so predictable. I can't help but focus on her cheek filler or implants in the Black Bag trailers -- they are so prominent. Do any non-lesbians actually find her sexy?

Well, it will be a refreshing change from the cartoons and superheroes that dominate the cineplex these days.

Spy movies will be redundant in the coming years of the Trump Regime 2. Now the US just gives all classified info away to the highest bidder. There's not much drama in that.

NY Times review

Fassbender and especially Blanchett have an otherworldly quality that makes them reliably interesting to watch, but it’s one that can feel like a membrane separating them from more ordinary souls. They both draw you to them, but, unlike, say, Brad Pitt, they don’t necessarily invite you in.

She looks !SURPRISED! Must be tough to be a spy with a permanent plastic surgery SURPRISE face.

With people constantly taking about Nicole and Cate’s faces, it makes me realize more and more that absolutely no one younger of comparable talent has come along to replace them. That is telling - especially in an industry that disagree older women the second they can - that they still rely so heavily on them. Who are the actresses under 40? Emma Stone? Jennifer Lawrence?-

there are plenty of younger women who can play spies. And I don't mind an older person spy movie. I liked those Helen Mirren Bruce Willis ones. But her face, here!

R27 Name one Hollywood actress under 40 now with the same trajectory that either Nicole or Cate had at the same age. Emma Stone? Jennifer Lawrence is more a Sandy or Julia level actress.

I'm not interested in that argument R28. I merely stated that there are plenty of 30 and 40 something actresses who can play kickass. Cate is hardly box office guarantee. This is likely the movie and cast Soderbergh wanted. If he wanted 30something kick assers he would have cast them.

You’ve said “Plenty” twice r29. Part of “playing” a role in a major motion picture or tv show is being a box office draw to some degree. You don’t have to be #1 but you do need some brand recognition. And I am just asking for one of the PLENTY in their 30s you speak of other than Emma Stone. Because I can’t really think of any.

And my main point being we keep lambasting these women over their looks, which is really another way of saying they are way too old to be doing what they are doing. But who else can do it, if not them? If their were a strong crop Nicole and Cate would have been retired in the 20-teens.

Why is Blanchett starring in a film about Whoopi?

Cate has microfilm stored in her cheek implants.

Sheesh you are persistent:

Gal Gadot (age 39)

Margot Robbie (age 34)

Saoirse Ronan (age 30)

Lupita Nyong’o (age 41)

Brie Larson (age 35)

Now I am not interested in defending them against the star power of Cate or Nicole. But they could do kick ass roles and they have name recognition. I am not arguing they should be in this film for crissakes. All I said is there are plenty of younger actresses who COULD play spies. You understand the modal verb COULD, correct?

R30, which movies did Nicole or Cate *star* in (not as a star but YHE star) which were huge box office hits?

You seem to be asking if today’s actresses what yesterday’s actresses were also incapable of.

Cate and Nicole were able to play leads in smaller films which were critically praised, but so have Emma, Aubrey and Jennifer.

Soderbergh used younger actress' in action films. eg Gina Carano in Haywire and Zoe Krazitz in Kimi.

...actresses...

Emma Stone had two Oscars before she turned 35 and is in extremely high demand with buzzy directors. She's a star, like her or not. Jennifer Lawrence's career definitely stalled for some time, but apparently she's a safe bet for at least an Oscar nod next year in a movie co-starring Robert Pattinson. Cate and Nicole are hardly irreplaceable.

R34, of course they’ve both had box office success in their early years - Moulin Rouge, The Others, Blue Jasmine, Elizabeth.

You are right r34, I’ll give you Margot Robbie. It’s crazy she’s only 34. That show Pan Am seems like twenty years ago. Is Margot another “CZJ?”

^ I meant R33 for the second part.

Saw this movie last Thursday, and I really enjoyed it. Though ostensibly an espionage film, it’s actually an engrossing and amusing puzzle movie and chamber piece, very intimate in scale with essentially just six actors, one or more of whom is a traitor in league with Russia.

Fassbender is good, Blanchette is trying too hard and her cheek fillers are distracting. Certainly there is no sexual heat between these two reptilian characters, but they are interesting to watch nonetheless. Rene Jean Page is gorgeous and watching him in this convinced me he could be a fine James Bond. Tom Burke is reliably good and looks better than he does in the latest season of “Strike.” Marisa Abela of “ Industry” is good as the warm, spontaneous audience surrogate, new to the world of spycraft. Naomi Harris is adequate as the sixth of the group, but nothing special, she’s a bit of a weak link. Pierce Brosnan looks very distinguished as the boss of the whole shebang.

The look of the movie is slick but monochromatic, and though I saw it on a big screen, it would work just fine on your widescreen HD TV.

Still not seeing the distinction you are raising, r38.

There are plenty of actresses in their 20s or 30s who have starred in pictures that did well at the box offfice ….

Florence Pugh, Alicia Vikander, Ana de Armas, Amber Heard, Margot Robbie, Brie Larson, Sophie Thatcher, Daisy Ridley, Anya Taylor-Joy,Mia Goth, Sydney Sweeney, Chloe Grace Moretz, Elizabeth Olsen, Daisy Edgar-Jones, Gal Gadot, Jennifer Lawrence, Kaya Scoledario, Kristin Stewart, Maika Monroe.

Hopefully you’re taking into account the different model for the box office during COVID and its aftermath ….

Cate always seems sexless. She never turly engages even when she's a social pest as in "Talented Mr. Ripley".

The chana masala at the dinner party looked very good.

“There’s nothing in that black bag for me…”

I wouldn’t be so sure about Jennifer Lawrence getting a nod for Die, My Love. From everything I read about the film, this sounds like a role she’s played a million times before.

The film goes by briskly. The performances are all good. Fassbender is great at playing these detached characters. Not a huge fan of Blanchette, but she held my interest here.

It was okay. I’ll have to read to summary of it to make sure I got all the twists

Fassbender was riveting in 12 Years a Slave, most impressing for such a thankless role. Should have won an Oscar.

R29 Soderbergh is so out of touch with the times, I bet he can’t name an actor in their 30s in 2025.

Soderbergh is a part of the Hollywood elite who still manage to have the big Hollywood producers on their team despite being box office failures for years. Their generation is over the hill. The “George Clooney” days of Hollywood before social media started dictating who’s hot and YouTube movie critics with no ties to the industry became the go-to for reviews.

I find Soderbergh’s work super pretentious and formulaic and it’s fitting he’d cast Cate and Fassbender despite no one under 35 knowing who the hell they are.

I saw this yesterday and thought it was a real disappointment. There is no chemistry between the leads and the whole thing feels sterile and dull.

Fassbender was over years ago. The Sony hack e-mails made it very clear he was never going to be a box office star. Amy Pascal and Scott Rudin were very disappointed when Fassbender seemed like the only option for the Steven Jobs movie and that was at the height of his career.

Just saw Black Bag last night. Thought it was sharp, smart, and quite enjoyable.

Marisa Abela was the best thing in this.

Cate Blanchett literally played a wig stand.

That Rene Jean-Page is a mediocre actor. He should go back to wanking himself off in Bridgerton.

Fassbender was just doing George Smiley, completely sexless.

Another flop for Cate and Fassbender.

Slant Magazine

Just saw it. This genre is not my fave so I lost interest pretty quickly. The film suffers from the lack of star quality I need. Same problem I had with Soderbergh's last film Presence. I just don't care about these people plotting against and betraying each other.

Fassbender is an abuser? I never heard that.