“Black Bag” appears to put identity-first casting and messaging front and center, often prioritizing characters’ demographic traits over organic development or narrative. Several leads are highlighted prominently for representation reasons rather than storyline necessity. This comes across as an exercise in box-ticking more than storytelling, which can leave depth and nuance by the wayside.

The movie makes a point of critiquing traditional institutions like family and established gender roles, suggesting they’re barriers to progress, while seldom showing them in a positive light. Themes of traditional masculinity and faith are either sidelined or lampooned in favor of new social norms. This could be seen as cultural revisionism on display.

Alternative viewpoints are essentially nowhere to be found, any dissenting character is reduced to cliché villain or comic relief. The entire cast appears to operate with one ideological voice, without real debate or sincere opposition, leading to a sense of echo-chamber storytelling that’s hard to ignore.