Agente secreto

The film has a Brazilian setting, not the stylized Brazilian setting, but one that makes you feel you actually know those people. In truth, the entire film gives this feeling.

It is a work that seems to be something you recognize. The way people speak, the "villains", everything is so symmetrically believable that the tension establishes itself naturally. The story does not deal with big points, it is the story of one person. Perhaps of many.

In this sense, the work is characterized by the characters, and all are very well realized and acted. Even though in certain moments scenes are prolonged in order to show these characters, as occurs throughout the film. Although time passes quickly while watching the film, it has many scenes that seem to serve only to extend the length of the work.

Even with its excesses, one of the greats of Brazilian cinema.

The Secret Agent is a film that, while ambitious, doesn't quite deliver on its promises. Its long runtime weighs heavily on the narrative, which oscillates between moments of great intensity and others where the pacing falters. The title, though intriguing, feels somewhat disconnected from the true essence of the story.

The acting is, without a doubt, the film's strongest asset. There's authenticity in the performances, well-crafted nuances, and a clear sense of commitment from the cast. The 1970s setting and the backdrop of Brazil's military dictatorship are excellent thematic choices, with immense potential to provoke reflection.

However, the script loses focus. Too many storylines are introduced, too many subplots promised, only to be left unresolved or poorly developed. The result is a lingering sense of a film that aimed to say more than it could effectively organize.

In short, The Secret Agent is a visually competent and well-intentioned work that ultimately gets lost in its own ambition. The marketing built expectations of a powerful impact that the final product fails to sustain. In the end, it's a middling film, full of good ideas and solid performances, but with uneven execution.

Kleber Mendonça Filho's Secret Agent is a film of striking visual elegance. Its art direction is nothing short of superb, reconstructing 1970s Recife with a sense of texture and atmosphere that is both raw and poetic. The city emerges not just as a backdrop, but as a living, breathing character - a mix of beauty, decay, and tropical melancholy. The film is also populated by a gallery of eccentric characters, embodied by an equally eccentric cast that gives the work a peculiar and often intriguing rhythm.

Yet, despite this sensory richness, Secret Agent ultimately feels weighed down by its own self-awareness. The screenplay is disappointingly unoriginal and excessively self-referential, operating more as a parnassian memorial to the director's own childhood than as a gripping piece of suspense. What could have been an inventive political thriller dissolves into a predictable collage of Brazilian clichés - corruption, nostalgia, and class tension - presented with a kind of weary inevitability that borders on pamphleteering.

Wagner Moura, despite critical praise, delivers an oddly muted performance. His restrained acting feels more absent than subtle, and the decision to have him play both father and son proves to be an unnecessary and somewhat embarrassing gimmick that adds little to the story's emotional weight.

In the end, Secret Agent stands as a technically accomplished but dramatically hollow film - a beautifully framed echo chamber where form triumphs over substance, and personal memory overshadows genuine cinematic tension.

"The Secret Agent" is yet another proof of how great Brazilian cinema is. It's very comparable to I'm Still Here in terms of themes and filmmaking, but it's much more violent. The film tells an intense, heavy story set during a period of Brazilian history rich enough to spawn countless narratives. And despite its long runtime, it's always magnetic and gripping thanks to its incredible direction, cinematography, and-above everything else-the performances.

The cast, led by the legendary Wagner Moura (with a special shout-out to Tânia Maria), deliver Oscar-worthy, unforgettable work. There are even a few funny or lighthearted scenes sprinkled in to lift the mood, which I really appreciated.

On the other hand, the third act felt a bit underwhelming. The choice to use the same actor to play a different character (something I usually hate) felt unnecessary, and several loose ends were left hanging. You can fill them in with your own imagination, but with such a long runtime, those threads and the entire story deserved to be completed on screen. I would have trimmed some of the excess earlier to allow the story to conclude fully.

These issues prevent me from giving the film a higher rating-but it remains a great piece of art and filmmaking nonetheless.

The Secret Agent is more than just one of the great films of the year. It reflects the maturity of Brazilian cinema and the strength of a generation of filmmakers who have changed the way the country is viewed on the international stage. After the success of Walter Salles's I'm Still Here, which reignited Brazil's presence at the Oscars, the arrival of Kleber Mendonça Filho's new film is surrounded by expectations, comparisons, and challenges. And perhaps that is precisely why The Secret Agent is not a film that will please everyone - nor does it try to be.

Some may be frustrated by the slow pace, the prolonged silences, or the open ending. But it is precisely in these details that the beauty of The Secret Agent lies. Mendonça does not want to shock, he does not want to give everything away on a silver platter. He wants to provoke reflection, he wants the viewer to leave the theater still processing what they saw - and what they felt. The discomfort the film causes is not a flaw; it is language.

What we see here is mature Brazilian cinema, bold and aware of its importance. A film that looks to the past without becoming hostage to nostalgia, and that speaks about the present without needing to shout. O Agente Secreto is a deep dive into the history and soul of a country that is still trying to understand itself. It is a work that requires patience, but rewards it with intensity.

In the end, what Kleber Mendonça Filho delivers is a film about memory, resistance, and belonging. A portrait of a man trying to escape himself, and of a country trying to forget what cannot be forgotten. With precise direction, an engaging script, and remarkable performances, O Agente Secreto is undoubtedly one of the great milestones of recent Brazilian cinema.