The Secret Agent

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The Secret Agent

R

2025

2h 41m

Drama

Mystery & Thriller

History

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

98%

Tomatometer

171 Reviews

83%

Popcornmeter

250+ Verified Ratings

Brazil, 1977. Marcelo, a technology expert in his early 40s, is on the run. Hoping to reunite with his son, he travels to Recife during Carnival but soon realizes that the city is not the safe haven he was expecting. Winner of Best Director and Best Actor in Cannes.

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Critics Consensus

A thematically rich and visually arresting political thriller, The Secret Agent blends grindhouse stylization with biting social commentary to weave a vividly dangerous yet darkly human tale.

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Audience Says

A thought-provoking political thriller that deliberately revisits a defining moment in Brazilian history, The Secret Agent is further cemented in the cinematic zeitgeist by Wagner Moura’s standout performance.

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Ty Burr

Ty Burr's Watch List (Substack)

Feb 9

4/4

The Secret Agent is about loss – specifically, the loss of connection, of community, that accompanies the coming of tyranny, and about the communities that form in secret as a result.

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Wenlei Ma

The Nightly (AU)

Jan 27

4/5

As a thriller, The Secret Agent is exciting and entertaining, an evocative piece of art that’s wholly lived in, plunging you into a messy and tense environment of political repression and fear.

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Sandra Hall

Sydney Morning Herald

Jan 21

4/5

There’s plenty of suspense here, but also a strong strain of gallows humour running through the serpentine storyline as if to pay tribute to the benefits of absurdism as a survival strategy, and Mendonça Filho has done a great job evoking the 1970s.

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Filipe Freitas

Always Good Movies

12h

4/5

With Filho’s razor-sharp direction and actors fully inhabiting their roles, the film illustrates how absolute power and systemic corruption can corrode an entire country through lies, greed, and violence.

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Gaby Wood

London Review of Books

5d

The film’s visual allure lies in its period colours, cars and clothes. It’s beautifully shot by Evgenia Alexandrova with vintage anamorphic lenses that nod to CinemaScope.

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Louisa Moore

Screen Zealots

Feb 9

Thoughtful, tense, politically sharp, and consistently engaging, how refreshing to see a film that not only respects its audience, but delivers tenfold.

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David S

4d

Good story. A little hard to follow at times. Didn’t like the ending.

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Evelyn

Feb 8

Great scenes, But too many things that clutter plot lines,

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Suzanna A

Feb 8

I never quite understood what the movie was about and it was slow. I ended up leaving 3/4 into the movie. The main actor was handsome. Sabastiana was darling.

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Marie

Feb 7

Good acting. I’m still confused why there was an up to date investigation on the old story (I guess I missed it). Loved how it appeared to be in the 70s.

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Jerry terHorst

Feb 6

I really wanted to like this movie. 98% on RT, wow! But I just could not get into it. It was way too long, and it wasn't clear what was going on, so most of the time was spent just guessing the relevance of what I was watching. I'm not sure a 30+ minute interview scene helped. Even after reading a synopsis post-watch, I still don't understand half of it. The jumps in time were confusing. I feel like this is a movie that, had I known Brazilian history and/or culture, it would've cleared up a lot of things. Unfortunately, I do not, so here we are. And I have no clue what that whole leg scene was supposed to be about. I'm sure there was a deeper meaning and/or metaphor, but good luck figuring it out.

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Belinda

Feb 4

excellent story, excellent acting, casting, cinematography, twists and turns.

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Kleber Mendonça Filho

Director

Wagner Moura

Marcelo Alves

Sebastiana de Medeiros

Dona Sebastiana

Udo Kier

Hans

Gabriel Leone

Bobbi

Maria Fernanda Cândido

Elza

Awards Leaderboard: Best Movies of 2025

One Battle After Another Takes Best Film at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards

The Secret Agent: Trailer 1

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The Secret Agent: Teaser Trailer

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Synopsis

Brazil, 1977. Marcelo, a technology expert in his early 40s, is on the run. Hoping to reunite with his son, he travels to Recife during Carnival but soon realizes that the city is not the safe haven he was expecting. Winner of Best Director and Best Actor in Cannes.

Director: Kleber Mendonça Filho
Producer: Emilie Lesclaux, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Wagner Moura, Brent Travers
Screenwriter: Kleber Mendonça Filho
Distributor: NEON
Production Co: CinemaScópio Produções, Arte France Cinema, Black Rabbit Media, MK2 Films, Vitrine Filmes
Rating: R (Some Full Nudity|Sexual Content|Language|Strong Bloody Violence)
Genre: Drama, Mystery & Thriller, History
Original Language: Brazilian Portuguese
Release Date (Theaters): Nov 26, 2025, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Feb 3, 2026
Box Office (Gross USA): $3.6M
Runtime: 2h 41m
Sound Mix: Dolby Digital
Aspect Ratio: Digital 2.39:1

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