Steven Soderbergh’s cleverest film in years, Black Bag boasts an entertaining cast, an exciting aesthetic, and a story that’s inviting though occasionally overwhelmingly complicated. Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett have great chemistry together as a couple with a complex love. Fassbender’s character in particular has an interesting manner to him, and every decision reveals more about the lengths he’s willing to go to. Marisa Abela, Tom Burke, Naomie Harris, and Rege-Jean Page all round out a great ensemble cast, each of whom has unique and intriguing characteristics and flaws. Soderbergh has tested the limits of filmmaking with a number of his films recently. Though he takes a more traditional approach here, the writing and aesthetic still feel large and thoughtful, with the pace flying by and the turns the story takes becoming more and more exciting. With perfectly cast characters and a smart story, Black Bag definitely ranks high for the director’s...
Have you ever felt frustrated with Netflix and their frequent price increases? Well, you can finally breathe a sigh of relief, because your hard earned money allowed them to spend 320 million dollars to bankroll “The Electric State”. Surely with that kind of price tag, the studio must be confident in the film’s quality, right?… right? From Joe and Anthony Russo, who brought us some of the MCU’s very best entries, this pricey blockbuster is the most expensive streaming release of all time, and the 13th most expensive movie of all time - period. Unfortunately, this ludicrous budget only draws more attention to a bigger problem with studio spending, and the current state of Hollywood’s broken business model. The film certainly looks flashy and expensive, but as a straight-to-streaming release, you can’t tell me Netflix was hoping to see a worthwhile return on this investment via subscribers - let alone turn a profit. But enough about irresponsible studio spending. What about th...