"Thirteen years after announcing his retirement, Steven Soderbergh is busier than ever," said John Nugent in Empire. Coming just two months after his last film, "Black Bag" is "tremendous fun: think 'Ocean's 11', if they were spies".
Like that earlier hit, it is "cool and confident" and features an "A-list cast" and a "punchy" script "full of mile-a-minute" dialogue. Michael Fassbender plays an "icy" British spy tasked with identifying a traitor in his agency. When he is presented with a list of suspects, he finds on it the name of his "beloved wife and colleague" (Cate Blanchett), throwing all loyalties into doubt. What follows nods to genre convention, but contains "very little in the way of action". Instead, its "pleasures lie in the dialogue, the twists, the reveals", leading to "a delightful Agatha Christie-style drawing-room denouement" in which the mole is finally exposed.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
‘Friendflation’: the increasing cost of maintaining a social lifeUnder the Radar Cost-of-living squeeze has left some feeling priced out of social events and struggling to keep up friendships
-
What’s behind Europe’s sharp drop in illegal migration?Today's Big Question Fall in migrant crossings won’t head off tougher immigration clampdowns
-
The new Stratus Covid strain – and why it’s on the riseThe Explainer ‘No evidence’ new variant is more dangerous or that vaccines won’t work against it, say UK health experts
-
Lou Berney’s 6 favorite books with powerful storytellingFeature The award-winning author recommends works by Dorothy B. Hughes, James McBride, and more
-
Robert Redford: the Hollywood icon who founded the Sundance Film FestivalFeature Redford’s most lasting influence may have been as the man who ‘invigorated American independent cinema’ through Sundance
-
Book reviews: ‘All the Way to the River: Love, Loss, and Liberation’ and ‘Mother Mary Come to Me’Feature Elizabeth Gilbert’s ‘balls to the wall’ memoir and Arundhati Roy’s terrifying mother
-
6 rustic homes on ranchesFeature Featuring copper kitchen counters in Colorado and a 380-acre property in California
-
Steve: a ‘gripping’ drama starring Cillian MurphyThe Week Recommends Murphy plays the frazzled headmaster of a boarding school for ‘delinquent’ boys in this bold Indie film
-
The Lady from the Sea: a ‘thrillingly contemporary’ Ibsen adaptationThe Week Recommends ‘Luminous’ cast dazzle in Simon Stone’s ‘hugely enjoyable’ production
-
Black Rabbit: slick crime thriller set in a high-end New York restaurantThe Week Recommends Two Manhattan brothers resort to ‘ever-more high-stakes’ schemes to tackle ‘huge’ gambling debts in the ‘glossy’ series
-
One Battle After Another: a ‘terrifically entertaining’ watchThe Week Recommends Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest release is a ‘high-octane action thriller’ and a ‘surefire Oscar frontrunner’
