David R. Walker

Archive for March, 2025

Black Bag

Director: Steven Soderbergh

Cast: Michael Fassbender, Cate Blanchett, Tom Burke, Marisa Abela, Rege-Jean Page, Naomie Harris, Gustaf Skarsgaard, Pierce Brosnan

Running Time: 1 hour 33 minutes

Film Rating: 7 out of 10

Contagion and Logan Lucky director Steven Soderbergh is back with a new uber cool spy thriller, slick and dark but unfortunately not very sexy.

Soderbergh’s latest film Black Bag assembles an ensemble cast including Oscar winner Cate Blanchett (The Aviator, Blue Jasmine), Oscar nominee Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave, Steve Jobs) alongside Tom Burke (Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga), Marisa Abela (Back to Black), Naomie Harris (Spectre, No Time to Die, Moonlight) Rene-Jean Page and Pierce Brosnan in a film that reads more like a play than a cinematic event.

Naturally Fassbender and Blanchett play the coolest hippest London couple on the planet as elegant spies George Woodhouse and Kathryn St Jean who suspect that their fellow employees of stealing a destructive cyber file called Severus from a secretive intelligence agency known as the National Cyber Security Centre.

The fellow spies are invited for a dinner party at their swish London pad, whereby all the jealousies and treachery emerge as each guest does their best to camouflage their deception. It’s an elegant dinner with traitors in which George Woodhouse, brilliantly played by Fassbender is keen on catching out one of his guests.

The guests include Freddie Smalls played by Tom Burke who could be having an affair with another lady besides his volatile girlfriend Clarissa, played with all the sharp tongued energy portrayed in the hit TV show Industry by Marisa Abela.

Then there is the dashingly handsome Colonel James Stokes played by Rege-Jean Page who is having a sexual relationship with the company psychologist Dr Zoe Vaughan wonderfully played by Naomie Harris.

So three potential couples, a destructive cyber file stolen by the Russians and a mysterious trip to Zurich make up the mysterious thriller Black Bag which is more like a contemporary version of Luigi Pirandello’s play Six Characters in Search of an Author.

Black Bag is well acted but unfortunately the film is too dark and sombre, with a surprising denouement.

The most sophisticated part of the film is the complex marriage between the two main characters both superbly played by Blanchett and Fassbender. The next best scene features a lie detector.  

Black Bag does not feature much action and while each actor do their best with a confusing and obscure script by David Koepp who doesn’t clearly identify who the hero and villain are. But maybe that’s the point.

If audiences are looking for a conventional action film, Black Bag is not it. This film will find it’s audience much like the dinner hosts find out who the traitor is. Pierce Brosnan is excellent in the small part he has.

Black Bag is obscure, fascinating and interesting but it is not a riveting film. This rather strange mystery thriller gets a film rating of 7 out of 10 and will have a unique appeal.

Black Bag is recommended viewing for those that enjoy unconventional spy thrillers with an elegant twist.

Cleaner

Director: Martin Campbell

Cast: Daisy Ridley, Clive Owen, Taz Skylar, Ruth Gemmell, Matthew Tuck, Lee Boardman, Rufus Jones

Running Time: 1 hour 37 minutes

Film Rating: 6 out of 10

There is a mysterious independent film corporation simply called Anton which are releasing new original films. Anton released the creepy psychological suburban thriller Mother’s Instinct with Oscar winners Anne Hathaway (Les Miserables) and Jessica Chastain (The Eyes of Tammy Faye). Anton’s corporate website says they have an address in Clerkenwell, London and operate remotely in Los Angeles.

Now Anton has released a distinctly British action film simply called Cleaner starring Star Wars actress Daisy Ridley as a skyscraper window cleaner opposite Oscar nominee Clive Owen (Closer) and British-Arab actor Taz Skylar as the demented environmental activist Noah.

Cleaner takes place entirely in a London skyscraper in Canary Wharf and revolves around Joey, a young woman with military training who has to look after her autistic brother Michael played by Matthew Tuck. Joey’s job is to do window cleaning at a posh skyscraper in the financial district of London. Things go awry when she has to bring her brother to work for the afternoon. Meanwhile high up, a glamourous shareholder’s cocktail party is about to take place for a shady energy company run by the cocaine sniffing Milton brothers Gerald played by Lee Boardman and Geoffrey played by Rufus Jones.

Soon a band of heavily disguised eco-terrorists led by Marcus played by Clive Owen (Children of Men, Gemini Man, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets) take the guests’ hostage and along with the demented Noah, want all these lavish corporate executives to confess to covering up widespread pollution and corporate corruption.

The only person that is not captured is Joey, wonderfully played by Daisy Ridley (Murder on the Orient Express) who has come a long way from the Star Wars franchise which cemented her fame.

Cleaner crisply directed by Martin Campbell (Casino Royale, The Mask of Zorro, The Protégé) makes for a thrilling 93 minutes with lots of action, high stakes treachery and Joey battling the evil climate change terrorists all while trying to save the hostages and protect her brother. Joey is helped by the temperate and sensible DS Hume well played by Ruth Gemmell.

London has never looked this contemporary with beautiful shots of the skyscrapers rising up like towers of progress amidst the fog of the British capital, location shots that are replicated in the brilliant hit series The Day of the Jackal starring Eddie Redmayne and Lashana Lynch.

The storyline is very shaky and unfortunately Clive Owen’s star power is not maximised. His career has never really recovered from the heights of his early films like Gosford Park, Inside Man and Closer.

It’s great to see an action film lead by a formidable female star like Daisy Ridley. Cleaner is pure British action, like a slimmed down version of the Hollywood hit Die Hard without Bruce Willis’s 1980’s charisma.

Cleaner gets a film rating of 6 out of 10 and is no masterpiece, but watchable. This film is recommended viewing for light entertainment as an original British action film which has sufficient plot twists to keep the audience engaged.

97th Academy Awards took place on Sunday 2^nd March 2025 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles.

Oscar Winners 2025: Full List of Winners

Best Picture: Anora

Best Director: Sean Baker – Anora

Best Actor: Adrien Brody – The Brutalist

Best Actress: Mikey Madison – Anora

Best Supporting Actor: Kieran Culkin – A Real Pain

Best Supporting Actress: Zoe Saldana – Emilia Perez

Best Original Screenplay: Sean Baker – Anora

Best Adapted Screenplay: Peter Straughan – Conclave

Best Cinematography: Lol Crawley – The Brutalist

Best Costume Design: Paul Tazewell – Wicked

Best Make up & Hairstyling: The Substance

Best Visual Effects: Dune Part II

Best Film Editing: Sean Baker – Anora

Best Sound: Dune Part II

Best Production Design: Wicked

Best Documentary Feature:  No Other Land

Best Documentary Short Subject: The Only Girl in the Orchestra

Best Original Score: Daniel Blumberg – The Brutalist

Best Original Song: Emilia Perez

Best Animated Feature Film: Flow – Latvia

Best Animated Short: In the Shadow of the Cypress.

Best Live Action Short Film: I am not a Robot

Best International Feature Film: I’m Still Here directed by Walter Salles – Brazil