'Black Bag' means information that cannot be disclosed. Just like the first 20 minutes, or really the whole runtime, leaves you in the dark about what exactly our cast of fast talking, promiscuous, highly intelligent people actually do. However, without this piece of intel the film still manages to be thoroughly entertaining.  The film does a devilish dance with shifting focus from chasing down life saving intel to chasing down the perfect spy love life. A key character beckons the question; how do you make a relationship work when your job is too constantly deceive people? You can't. The odd variable? Our most viciously delicious couple played by Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender. What's their secret? Wouldn't you like to know... At only 90 minutes this film left me wanting more, but in the best way. I'll definitely be revisiting again, with subtitles. 

There was really no way to follow up writer/director's Bong Joon Ho's Parasite (2019). The masterpiece (so far) of his career and arguably the best film of the last decade. However, despite the very long wait, we finally have his next film. An odd movie - starring a delightful Robert Pattinson, who's performance brings all the life to this film. Mickey is an expendable, which means he's basically a meat slave. Subjected to all sorts of tortures and tests by the military and scientific community of a space colonization mission led by none other than Donald Trump... Yes. We'll get back to that later. This is not a job someone would just sign up for yet Mickey does. because Mickey is kind of pathetic. I will say that the first hour of this film really hooked me. I thought we had another gem on our hands. The soundtrack, the performance, the subtle yet present emotional undertones swirling in my stomach... but remember the Donald Trump bit I mentioned earlier? Yea... Don't get me wrong. Mark Ruffalo giving his most obnoxious Trump impersonation was hilarious and provided some necessary levity midway into the film. Unfortunately however, the film takes a hard left turn into it's 3rd act and by the end it lost almost all the emotional payoff I was looking forward to. There are some genuinely fantastic scenes in this film! 2025 has already got a contender for best scene, featuring 2 Mickeys and Steven Yeun (asshole) in the furnace room. You'll have to see it to know what happens...