Black Bag, the second of two 2025 collaborations between director Steven Soderbergh and writer David Koepp, is now available on 4K UHD, Blu-Ray, DVD, and digital platforms from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.
(This is a review of the Blu-Ray release)
The Film:
There’s no denying that Black Bag is one of the best films of 2025 so far. I indicated in my theatrical review that its script is arbitrarily complicated, adding flair to what is a decidedly simple story. This sounds like a negative comment, but it’s far from it. In the world of Black Bag — one of subterfuge, espionage, and suspicion — arbitrary complications are the name of the game. In the case of Soderbergh’s latest, it means pure entertainment. This is a film where the hottest stars, both established and upcoming, get to chew on meaty material and look snappy doing it. Black Bag is the antidote for spy films that traffic in the realm of big, bombastic action (this is not a bad thing, but it’s a common thing). Instead of gadgets and explosions, it’s words and allegiances. It’s less James Bond and more John le Carré. The stakes are high, but not “save the world” high. Instead, they’re “save my marriage and smoke out a mole” high.
And it stars my wife, Cate Blanchett, who I adore.
The Features:
The disc for Black Bag comes with three special features, none of which add much value to the package beyond the film itself (which, again, is one of the best of 2025 so far). Notably absent is a commentary track, which would have been an incredible addition, given Steven Soderbergh’s obsession with his chosen craft, which is on display in every frame of the film.
The first feature is a set of three deleted scenes, all of which appear to be late cuts from the film on account of being fully produced, complete with score. On their own, each scene is perfectly fine, even compelling, but with the film in rear view only one feels like a substantial cut. Those interested in film structure may find enjoyability in investigating the reasoning behind these cuts, but one gets the sense that the script was already lean enough at the start of production.
This is followed by The Company of Talent, a short featurette in which the stars of Black Bag compliment one another’s skills and lightly discuss the motivations behind their respective characters. Nothing too deep, and it feels more like a commercial for the film than it does a bonus feature. While it is quite nice to see how enthused these superstars and up-and-comers were, and how downright brilliant it must be to work with Soderbergh, no worthwhile revelations about the production come through.
The third, final, and most interesting special feature is a short featurette titled Designing Black Bag, in which various craftspeople (makeup/hair, costume design, set design) speak on their choices and methods for designing the look of the film. Any other filmmaker on the planet would have been content to shoot this on a handful of small sets, but per this feautrette, Soderbergh had his team construct the entire home in which much of the film takes place, and he made sure that locations were used in instances when a set couldn’t be built. This feels similar to his other effort from 2025, Presence, which takes place inside a home, and given the nature of its framing device, requires an understandable and connected geography.
The costume designers also describe their choices, and I found it fascinating to see the ways in which simple choices within a wardrobe can inform our read on each character, as well as the performances of the actors inhabiting said character. While not a lot of depth is mined, it serves as a good reminder of the intentionality of even the smallest creative choices. Nothing is insignificant.
All in all, Black Bag is such a fantastic film that the disc is worth buying, despite its lack of worthwhile special features. This is a film that deserves to be seen and heard beyond the compression of streaming, and the blu-ray provides crisp visuals and dynamic sound. It is also available in 4K, which I imagine provides an equally great transfer.
Video
Codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Audio
English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
French: Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles
English SDH, French, Spanish
Discs
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD-50)
Digital
Movies Anywhere
Packaging
Slipcover in original pressing
Playback
2K Blu-ray: Region A, B
