There is no director currently working who’s quite like Steven Soderbergh. He bounces back and forth between mainstream fare and artsy stories. He’ll occasionally dip his toe into big-budget filmmaking, as with the Ocean’s series, but typically gets by on a fraction of what others spend. And he moves quickly, with an affinity for innovation that has not abated after 35 years of making feature films.

Just two months after his excellent Presence hit theaters, he’s back with the flashier — but still intimate — Black Bag. Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett play husband-and-wife English spies George Woodhouse and Kathryn St. Jean. Their bond is built on love and attraction, to be sure, but they also have a healthy mutual suspicion of each other that comes part and parcel with their line of work.

When someone within their agency is suspected of being a traitor, George is tasked with rooting out the turncoat, even if it happens to be his wife. Two other couples within the agency — Freddie Smalls (Tom Burke) and Clarissa Dubose (Marisa Abela), and Dr. Zoe Vaughan (Naomie Harris) and Col. James Stokes (Regé-Jean Page) — get roped into the investigation, with everyone seeming to have something to hide.

Soderbergh, teaming up with Presence screenwriter David Koepp again, upends expectations at almost every step in the film. While there is plenty of intrigue and a few scenes featuring suspenseful spywork, the film is heavily focused on dialogue. In fact, George and Kathryn’s fancy London house is the epicenter of the story, with the two feeling each other out while preparing for the day, or hosting tense and revealing dinner parties with the other spies.

George is the main character of the film, and he is seemingly an all-knowing individual, whether it’s about the inner workings of the agency or his fellow agents’ personal lives. Soderbergh and Koepp funnel almost all of the story’s twists and turns through him, an effective tactic that works well since he is close to emotionless, rarely betraying his inner feelings.

Koepp’s crackling dialogue is what carries the day, taking the place of any gunplay while being no less powerful. There are no extraneous conversations between the various characters in the compact, 90-minute film; every interaction is laced with meaning and serves as a conduit toward the next turn of events. The relative lack of action in the film makes the rare moments when violence does rear its head especially impactful.

Fassbender and Blanchett are two of the best actors in the world right now, and they prove it in every scene. The way they banter is a masterclass in subtlety, saying a lot with an economy of words. Burke, Abela, Harris, and Page each put in strong performances, and Pierce Brosnan complements them well in a small role as the agency director.

Black Bag is an adult spy thriller, eschewing the typical pyrotechnics of the genre for a story that makes people simply talking seem riveting. It’s yet another example that Soderbergh has a talent for making compelling movies in almost every genre he chooses, an ability that’s enhanced by the film’s stellar cast and writing.

---

Black Bag is now playing in theaters.