Film reviews: Black Bag and Novocaine
A spy hunts for a rat—who could be his own wife—and a guy who can’t feel pain turns action hero.

Black Bag
Directed by Steven Soderbergh (R)
Steven Soderbergh’s second movie of this young year turns out to be “precisely the sort of adult, big-budget, star-driven affair that Hollywood has largely forsaken yet desperately needs,” said Nick Schager in The Daily Beast. Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett co-star as British intelligence agents whose marriage is tested when Fassbender’s George is given a week to find a mole in the team’s midst and learns that one of the suspects is the wife he adores.
Arriving less than two months after Soderbergh’s clever ghost story, Presence, this “sultry and sinister” film “feels like a cross between John le Carré and Agatha Christie.” For the Oscar-winning filmmaker, “it’s a doodle really,” but “also one of his smartest and sexiest films yet,” said Peter DeBruge in Variety. While the thriller stakes are high, because the rat inside the agency has stolen a technology capable of killing tens of thousands, the brilliance of the movie lies in how it uses the spy trade as a lens on the roles of secrecy and trust in any relationship.
Subscribe to 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.
“Ultimately, it’s the marriage theme that gives Black Bag heft.” Its two stars cast distinctive spells, said Stephanie Zacharek in Time. While Blanchett “strides through the movie with lioness grace,” Fassbender “makes George’s robotic use of logic seem like an aphrodisiac.” The only downside of the flow the team has generated is that “Black Bag is over before you feel you’ve really gotten a hold of it.”
Novocaine
Directed by Dan Berk and Robert Olsen (R)
The new action comedy starring Jack Quaid “probably shouldn’t work as well as it does,” said William Bibbiani in The Wrap. Mixing ultraviolent sequences with a rom-com heart, it casts Quaid as Nathan Caine, an introvert with a rare disorder that renders him impervious to pain and cautious about every aspect of life. But after Nate falls for a coworker, played by Prey’s Amber Midthunder, and she’s kidnapped by violent bank robbers, he tries to rescue her while the film “uses Nate’s condition as an excuse to place him in remarkable, and remarkably gross, situations—like shoving his hand into boiling grease to grab a handgun.”
The film’s fight scenes, while often gory, are “as amusing as they are exciting,” said Frank Scheck in The Hollywood Reporter. Even so, Novocaine “would probably have eventually worn out its welcome were it not for Quaid’s terrific performance.” The 32-year-old son of Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid proves “as endearing here as he was creepy in the recent Companion,” and his star power stretches a one-joke premise into 110 watchable minutes.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
“While Quaid is uniquely skilled at playing both sides of Nate,” said Kate Erbland in IndieWire, the actor can’t manage to create a cohesive character who’s both mild-mannered and “a wacked-out action hero.” The movie, too, struggles with tone, as the action “moves from cartoonishly fun to grim and queasy with nary a step in between.” Even Quaid’s likability proves problematic when things turn dark. After all, “we don’t want to see Nate actually tortured.”
-
The Week Junior to partner with Barnes Children's Literature Festival
For the second year running, The Week Junior are partnering with Barnes Children's Literature Festival, a wonderful, inclusive event designed to bring children's books to life!
-
Celebrations to mark 80 years since VE Day
The Week Recommends Events will be taking place up and down the country, from parades to street parties
-
Kim Kardashian and the trial of the 'Grandpa Robbers'
The Explainer The reality TV star will appear in court in Paris this month, almost nine years after being held at gunpoint in her hotel room
-
Critics' choice: Variations on family values
Feature French cuisine gets a Vietnamese twist, a one-man Turkish kitchen, and a family-run Italian restaurant
-
Music reviews: Julien Baker & Torres, Tunde Adebimpe, and Rhiannon Giddens & Justin Robinson
Feature "Send a Prayer My Way," "Thee Black Boltz," "What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow"
-
Film reviews: The Accountant 2 and The Shrouds
Feature A number cruncher crushes a new set of bad guys and mourners buy a view into their loved ones' graves
-
Some film franchises keep cranking out sequels and reboots. These are the ones that do it best.
the week recommends 'Shrek 5' is upon us. What other movie series have deserved this many follow-ups?
-
Art review: The Frick Collection
Feature After a $330 million renovation and expansion, New York City's Frick Collection has reopened to the public
-
Amor Towles' 6 favorite books from the 1950s
Feature The author recommends works by Vladimir Nabokov, Jack Kerouac, and more
-
Book reviews: 'Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age' and 'Crumb: A Cartoonist's Life'
Feature How AI is a parasite of humanity and a biography on the godfather of underground comix
-
The thermal springs and ancient tombs of Bulgaria
The Week Recommends A gorgeous Rose Valley, hilltop tomb and relaxing spa all in a town untainted by tourist crowds