God bless 90 minute popcorn movies. After years of not talking shop at home, a married spy couple get drawn into the search for a mole in their service and George (Michael Fassbender) comes up with a list of suspects including his wife Kathryn (Cate Blanchett). Bookended by a pair of all-timer tense dinner scenes, BLACK BAG is an espionage movie very much in the lowkey mould of Le Carré; clever, duplicitous people standing in grey rooms talking while the world outside holds its breath. Don’t expect high-octane action but do expect finely-tuned character work and dialogue that says far more in its subtext than text from rarely-better screenwriter David Koepp. The final twists are perhaps a little too telegraphed, but the cast, particularly Fassbender, Blanchett and Tom Burke, carry you through Steven Soderbergh’s best in years. You will be glued to the screen by this efficient, all-killer-no-filler thriller. SSP
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Review in Brief: Heretic (2024)
What a tense, twisted treat HERETIC is. Mormon missionaries Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Paxton (Chloe East) are invited into the home of the affable Mr Reed (Hugh Grant) for a friendly theological discussion and get much more than they bargained for. Heretic certainly keeps you guessing, and only really wobbles in its very final stretch, which is still fun just increasingly credulity-pushing. Hugh Grant really is going through a renaissance since he aged out of his endearingly awkward romantic leads; every role he now takes on placing him further outside his comfort zone with wonderful, often chilling results. Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East give as good as they get as well, the power balance between Reed and the missionaries fascinatingly shifting in the film’s second half. Heretic will have you on the edge of your seat, it’ll illicit uncomfortable laughter and it may well make you think about interrogating your own faith as well. SSP
SSP Thinks Film 