Black Bag achieves a personal high for director Steven Soderbergh

Steven Soderbergh achieves some of his finest reviews for Black Bag, his latest spy thriller, and his best-reviewed film on Rotten Tomatoes. The review aggregator has declared it certified fresh. With reviews from 197 critics, the film holds a 96% Tomatometer rating. For those who're unaware of how it works, this means that 96 percent of reviews this film received were positive. Soderbergh achieved this feat shortly after his other recent release - Presence received widely positive reviews.

The critical consensus for Black Bag reads,

"Sleek in design and spiked with dry wit, Black Bag is an exemplary espionage caper that lets movie stars like Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender do what they do best -- light up the screen."

On the other hand, it has received a 72% Popcornmeter rating. Their consensus reads,

"Blanchett and Fassbender excellently set up a play of intrigue in a solid Soderbergh entry that if challenging to follow at times, is mostly a satisfying match."

What this reveals is a mainly flattering response to the latest project from a director, who has been making films for multiple decades. He achieved mainstream praise for his work on the Ocean movie trilogy, but that's not the only work he deserves attention for.

Director Steven Soderbergh achieves a career-high Rotten Tomatoes rating for Black Bag

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Black Bag holds a 96% approval rating. This makes it Steven Soderbergh's highest-rated feature film. However, it shares this honor with the director's Palme d'Or-winning Sex, Lies, and Videotape. Despite being his feature directorial debut, the 1989 film earned him this highest honor at the Cannes Film Festival. He also earned an Oscar for writing the film's screenplay. Later, he was nominated for an Academy Award for directing Erin Brockovich, and won the award in 2001, for directing Traffic.

In terms of Rotten Tomatoes ratings on Soderbergh's directorial, Out of Sight holds the second spot with 94% along with Behind the Candelabra. Traffic holds the third spot with 93%. These ratings reflect an aggregation approach and offer viewers a chance to understand films with the most positive responses from the critics from many film publications. Following are excerpts from some of their reviews:

Richard Brody from The New Yorker said,

"The cast of luminaries lend the thinly sketched characters distinctive personalities, but the real star is the technology of spycraft: Soderbergh grimly delights in exposing its eerie powers and potentially devastating uses."

The Hollywood Reporter's David Rooney wrote,