March 14, 2025

Lean, slick, and emotionally satisfying—this seems to be the type of package director Steven Soderbergh and writer David Koepp strive to deliver when they work together. The pair has teamed up three times now, following "Kimi" (2022) and this year's underseen ghost story thriller, "Presence," and their latest, "Black Bag," helps solidify their M.O. that short (each film averages only 90 minutes), direct, and gratifying are what we can expect when both their names appear in the credits. This isn't to say their collaboration must always render a movie with the same characteristics—in fact, we should hope it doesn't—but right now their formula has them on a winning streak.