Black Bag (2025)

No car chases, no gadgets: the big set piece in Black Bag is a dinner party, and if you came for action, you’re at the wrong table. The last stretch also turns into a lot of people explaining things in a room, and the chilly, clipped tone keeps you at arm’s length. Still, this is grown-up fun. Michael Fassbender’s George gets a week to catch whoever leaked Severus, a top-secret program, and his own wife Kathryn is on the short list. So he invites the other four suspects over and turns dinner into a quiet interrogation. Fassbender and Cate Blanchett play a couple who might be lying to each other about everything, and their chemistry carries every scene. Steven Soderbergh keeps it sleek and quick, and David Koepp’s script is all sly, sharp talk. Critics gave it 96% on Rotten Tomatoes, while opening crowds settled on a B CinemaScore. An 8.1 because the talk is sharper than most movies’ action. $273 says you host a dinner soon and find yourself studying who’s fibbing about liking the food.

What works: Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender are magnetic as spies married to each other, and the dialogue is sharp enough to make two dinner scenes feel like action.

What doesn’t: The final reveals lean on a lot of explaining, and the cool, distant tone makes it easy to admire and hard to feel.

Who it’s for: People who like their spy stories talky and twisty, more le Carré than Bond.