By Alex McPherson

Efficient, well-acted, and sleek as hell, director Steven Soderbergh’s “Black Bag” is pure escapist fun, weaving a tale of messy interpersonal drama into a spy yarn whose dense plotting yields ample rewards.

British intelligence officer George Woodhouse (Michael Fassbender) is a cold, calculating, and loyal specialist who can’t stand liars but takes a certain amount of pleasure in rooting them out. He’s told by his superior, Philip Meacham (Gustaf Skarsgard), that a top-secret software program called Severus has been leaked, and  he’s got to “find the rat” in a week’s time or millions of people will die.

Seems like an easy enough task for George who, when he was 37 years old, investigated his own father (once working at the same institution himself) for having an affair.

The only catch is that Meacham reveals that George’s beautiful and enigmatic wife who also works at the agency, Kathryn St. Jean (Cate Blanchett), is one of the five suspects. This troubles George; he and Kathryn share a deep, intimate bond, based on unwavering trust and loyalty to each other.  Why would she betray him and his country?

George invites the other four individuals — who also happen to be couples — over for dinner and drinks (which include truth serum) hoping to shake loose who leaked Severus. There’s the satellite imagery specialist Clarissa Dubose (Marisa Abela) and her trouble-making boyfriend and managing agent Freddie Smalls (Tom Burke); and wry agency shrink Dr. Zoe Vaughan (Naomie Harris) and her vain partner, the recently-promoted Col. James Stokes (Regé-Jean Page).

This group of horny, mentally troubled spies becomes quickly undone thanks to George’s truth serum: a betrayal is revealed, and a hand is promptly stabbed with a knife. But George’s mission isn’t accomplished, and as the plot thickens — especially when the agency’s haughty and slick-haired boss Arthur Stieglitz (Pierce Brosnan, chewing copious scenery) comes onto the scene — a story of double-crosses, insecurities, and life-or-death stakes reveals itself. Most importantly, though, can George and Kathryn’s marriage survive in a job where the code-word “black bag” conceals all secrets?

Indeed, “Black Bag” uses familiar trappings of the spy genre to tell a story about human connections, both frayed and resilient, delivered with smooth style and an ensemble flaunting their star power in entertainingly self-aware fashion. Soderbergh’s film (his second this year after the thrillingly experimental “Presence”)  is a no-frills endeavor, moving at a fast clip as the twists stack up and remain so damn fun to watch. 

Fassbender shines particularly brightly within the star-studded cast, adding another notch to his “malfunctioning robot” characters, which was most recently personified in David Fincher’s “The Killer.” George is charismatic yet socially stunted, moving with a smooth, often darkly funny determination toward conclusions that might terrify him. His stone-cold façade erodes as he evaluates how much Kathryn ultimately means to him, and the lengths he’s willing to go to protect her.

Blanchett exudes effortless coolness as Kathryn, remaining mysterious yet right at home with George. David Koepp’s script portrays their connection with just enough mystery and ambiguity to keep us on our toes as to Kathryn’s ultimate intentions, testing whether we believe in their enduring bond as surrounding characters’ personal and professional lives fall apart, sometimes spectacularly.

The entire ensemble is excellent, with Abela and Brosnan the clear standouts. Abela makes a meal of Koepp’s crackly, quip-filled script; her Clarissa, unsure how to navigate romance within the spy world along with her own insecurities, is feisty and impulsive. She remains compelled to act for what she considers the greater good. Brosnan, in a seemingly anti-James-Bond role, makes a strong impression despite limited screen time, oscillating between confident and increasingly uncomfortable as the plot spirals further out of control.

The ensemble’s talent carries “Black Bag” a long way, but, even with a lesser cast, there’s still much to appreciate from a stylistic perspective. David Holmes’s electronic score pulses in sync with each new revelation; percussive beats amid jazzy themes symbolically tie into the characters’ eroding disguises.

Scenes are lit with a warm, hazy glow, and Soderbergh — who also handled cinematography and editing — opts for finely-tuned precision, not wasting any time as the labyrinthine plot progresses. The aforementioned dinner scene and a polygraph test later in the film are particular standouts, with Koepp’s script and Soderbergh’s editing working in perfect, tension-filled harmony.

It’s refreshing to see a film like “Black Bag” that trusts viewers to follow along with the characters’ lingo and technology without talking down. The (disquietingly current) geopolitics take a backseat to the characters’ interpersonal happenings.

In its own heightened, somewhat soapy way, “Black Bag” has much to say about romantic relationships and the trust necessary to keep them afloat, even in the treacherous terrain of spy craft. Admittedly, “poignancy” is somewhat sidelined in service of keeping the film’s infectiously enjoyable momentum.    

Clocking in at 93 minutes, “Black Bag” flies by and remains prime for future rewatches — a confident, intelligent, sexy spy story that signals one of the year’s first great films.

“Black Bag” is a spy thriller directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring Michael Fassbender, Cate Blanchett, Rege-Jean Page, Pierce Brosnan, Naomie Harris, Tom Burke, Marisa Abela and Gustaf Skarsgard. It is rated R for language including some sexual references, and some violence, and the runtime is 1 hour, 33 minutes. It opened in theaters March 14. Alex’s Grade: A

By Lynn Venhaus
With comparisons to a modern-day “Rosemary’s Baby,” expectations were heightened for “False Positive,” but whatever sinister vibe this psychological thriller wanted to build up in its first two-thirds, badly falls apart with a preposterous ending.

Fantasy and fiction collide in a disturbing way as an affluent young couple go through a first pregnancy that we already know is not going to end well because of the first scene, a flash forward. How they get there isn’t convincing either, although there are strong moments and good performances.

Ilana Glazer, best known for the comedy “Broad City,” plays a rising marketing specialist working for a boutique ad agency in Manhattan. She wants a baby but after two years of trying, she and her husband Adrian (Justin Theroux), a reconstructive surgeon, haven’t been able to conceive. His mentor in med school, Dr. John Hindle, is a fertility doctor who can work miracles, he tells his wife.

They will have a happy ending, they’re told. As the pompous doctor with a raging God complex, Pierce Brosnan deliciously chews the scenery. He clearly enjoys embracing the arrogance the role demands – and there’s something unsettling about how cheerful his assistants are, especially Nurse Dawn (Gretchen Mol). Shades of “The Stepford Wives”!

As if getting pregnant weren’t complicated enough, Lucy sets out to uncover the unsettling truth about her smarmy doctor and she starts to suspect her husband may be complicit

The script by Glazer and her “Broad City” writing partner John Lee, who also directed, is best as pointing out the anxiety and fears expectant mothers have, as well as how motherhood is viewed in the workplace.

While it’s believable that the hormonal Lucy would have concerns and we see that her intuition isn’t too far off – we only get her point of view. We don’t know much about Adrian and Theroux has little to work with or convey.

When Lucy begins having weird dreams –some presented as fantasies, which are mixed in with a nightmarish reality, it’s hard to keep straight what is just her imagination and what might have really happened.

Because we already have unanswered questions, that jagged tone doesn’t help in establishing her as a sympathetic character. She is trying to convince others she is not crazy when she does, in fact, seem delusional.

When it’s revealed that she is pregnant with twin boys and a single girl fetus, selective reduction is recommended – although she goes against the doctor’s suggestion to keep the boys, because she desperately wants a girl, to be named Wendy, a nod to her cherished late mother, who read her “Peter Pan.”

Pierce Brosnan as Dr. John Hindle

From the bizarre birth scene to the film’s ludicrous conclusion, we are expected to accept all these outlandish outcomes and absurd actions. It becomes so far removed from logic, why should we believe any of it?

The once-promising film devolves into a pathetic, icky, brutal bloodbath that can best be described as nonsense.

It’s run time is only 92 minutes, and the ending feels too abrupt, so they could have taken some more time in making it credible.

This is the kind of film that I wanted to really like, especially its points about modern moms. It had me, and then it lost me.

“False Positive” is a psychological thriller-horror film directed by John Lee and starring Ilana Glazer, Justin Theroux, Pierce Brosnan, Gretchen Mol and Josh Hamilton. It is rated R for disturbing/bloody images, sexual content, graphic nudity and language and has a run-time of 1 hour, 32 minutes. It begins streaming on Hulu starting June 25. Lynn’s Grade: C