movies

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy was a phenomenal film crafted with great care by experts. Comparing self-described mid-market spy films to that one is like comparing your house painter to Van Gogh. It's not that they can't be that good, but if that's your benchmark, you are setting yourself up for disappointment.

I think the more troubling thing is that a filmmaker who made a mid-market spy thriller is just now discovering that audiences have abandoned theaters as the preferred venue. Theaters are too expensive, and wages are too low, for people to just drop $100 on a Friday night watching average movies and eating shitty popcorn. We have too many options, and too little disposable income to tolerate the leveraged abuse of consumers. For 40 years, theaters have squeezed every drop of profit from their privileged market position, and now they cannot afford to keep the lights on.

If you want to make money making average films, you need to meet viewers where they are, at home on their couch.

To be honest, I'm not sure if Black Bag is really much of a spy movie. There's barely any action or international intrigue, it's almost all just stuffy british dialogue. For that reason I'd call it more of a mystery/whodunnit flick that just happens to be set in a spy agency. It's definitely no Bond film, but I think it holds up pretty well for what it is. I had a good time watching it.

This is the answer.
Black Bag sucked LARGE. B-minus Netflix-worthless retread tripe with predictable story and plot lines.
Soderbergh should be embarrassed that he made this.

Here you go 🍪