Fast reviews for busy people! Watch as I review three movies in less time than it takes to make the bed! Have a look as I race against the clock to tell you about the jump scares of “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2,” the Broadway stylings of “Merrily We Roll Along” and the thrills of “The Secret Agent.”
Watch the whole thing HERE!
SYNOPSIS: Set in 1977, “The Secret Agent” is a new political thriller starring Wagner Moura as an on-the-lam university professor who becomes involved with an underground freedom network during Brazil’s military dictatorship.
CAST: Wagner Moura, Carlos Francisco, Tânia Maria, Robério Diógenes, Maria Fernanda Cândido, Gabriel Leone, Alice Carvalho, Hermila Guedes, Isabél Zuaa, Udo Kier. Written and directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho.
REVIEW: Richly layered with political commentary, absurdist humor and thrills, “The Secret Agent” (originally titled “O Agente Secreto”) is an entertainingly convoluted tale of resistance against Brazil’s authoritarian government circa 1977.
Deliberately—read: unevenly—paced, the story focusses on 43-year-old engineering professor Armando (Wagner Moura). His study of lithium batteries put his life in danger when he refused to cooperate with a corrupt São Paulo government official who wanted the research for his own personal gain.
Now calling himself Marcelo Alves, he’s on the run, hiding out in the coastal city of Recife to be with his young son Fernando (Enzo Nunes). With the help of freedom fighter Dona Sebastiana (Tânia Maria), he gets a place to live and, ironically, a job at the Institute of Identification where he hopes to get a fake passport while he investigates the mysterious death of his mother.
First though, he must dodge the hired killers (Roney Villela and Gabriel Leone) sent by his old adversaries to tie up loose ends.
There’s more, lots more, like a human leg found in the stomach of a shark that becomes a surreal metaphor for the dictatorship’s atrocities, in a movie that refuses to settle on one genre. It may seem like a massive understatement that in the film’s opening moments it refers to 1977 Brazil as, “a time of mischief,” but it soon becomes clear that this is a mischievous movie, one unafraid to switch tones or genres at the drop of a hat as it careens to its dark, grindhouse climax.
The glue that binds the whole thing as it meanders through story and tone is Moura, playing both Marcelo and the adult version of his son. He deservedly won the Best Actor Award at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival for a performance that ranges from desperation to introspection to rage, sometimes in the same scene.
“The Secret Agent’s” meandering storytelling requires some effort but offers rich and unexpected rewards to patient viewers.
