The Secret Agent (2025): Compelling, Memorable, Great!

By Len Weiler

It’s hard to adequately describe the new Brazilian film The Secret Agent without going into a lot of plot details, which I’m not going to do here. Simply stated it’s about life in a lawless, corrupt, unfair world and the fate of a man on the run. The easiest thing to do is to describe the film impressionistically, adjectivally: it's a terrific, engaging movie that's so emotionally compelling, superbly acted, artistically stylish,  and richly rewarding that you may want to see it more than once. While silly at times (not a bad thing), The Secret Agent is a film that demands and deserves to be taken seriously.  Although largely set in mid-1970s Brazil when it was ruled by a repressive regime corrupted by its oligarch supporters, this nevertheless is a cautionary film for our time. Some have called a it companion piece to last year’s I’m Still Here, which it sort of is, although its story, presentation  and the enveloping experience  of watching it are all far different. Like I’m Still Here, it is a memory piece, but less obviously so. 

The Secret Agent is written and directed  by Brazilian auteur Kleber Mendonça Filho, whose most recent work includes the critically acclaimed movies  Aquarius (2016) and Bacurau (2019). Filho is a native of Recife (Brazil’s fourth most populous city) where much of the story is set. 

It’s 1977 when we first meet  the film’s compelling protagonist, Marcelo, driving his bright yellow VW bug along a lonely highway. He’s been on the road for days, traveling back to Recife to reunite with his six-year-old son who’s been staying with his grandpa (Marcelo’s father-in-law).  When he pulls into a remote gas station – a place right out of any number of classic noir movies, except bathed in bright sunlight – he sees a dead body lying under a flattened cardboard box just a few yards from the gas pump.  Matter-of-factly, the station attendant tells the bemused Marcelo not to worry; the body has lain in the tropical heat there for days.  Although an ambulance was called, it's Carnaval and the medicos are no doubt too busy dealing with the holiday craziness in town to bother. The scene is shocking and odd in equal measure, signifying nothing more nor less than that something is surely rotten in Brazil. 

The use of yellow, by the way, is prominent throughout The Secret Agent: not just cars, but clothing, walls and various other backgrounds - quite noticeable and rather nice. I do not know why – but I'll  suggest two thematic possibilities: (a) yellow is a prominent feature of the Brazilian flag (along with green (also used frequently in the film’s palette), and (b) yellow often has been used in traditional representational art and literature, I'm told, to convey moral decay and corruption - including in Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent (not in other respects a source for the storyline in this film). 

Marcelo (played brilliantly by Wagner Moura [Narcos (2015-16), Civil War (2024)] is a fugitive - for reasons the film will eventually explain - and has been given the address of a sort-of safe house in Recife, where he can stay with several other “refugees” while arrangements are made for him and his boy to leave the country. Marcelo is at the center of the narrative throughout the film's more than two hour run-time,  and Moura is never less than magnetic. "Marcelo" is a pseudonym, we eventually learn, but one wonders if Filho chose that name because, in some indefinable way, the character reminds us of Mastroianni. 

The narrative incorporates some time shifts along the way: flashbacks to flesh out who this intelligent, mild-mannered character once was and flash-forwards to the near present to add context and gravity to what we are watching of 1977. There are also a bevy of interesting supporting characters – many of whom are real characters – good folks, bad folks and much in between, all very well played. 

The Secret Agent -  so rich with detail - is a movie that’s hard to get out of your head in the hours and days after you’ve experienced it.  At Cannes this past Spring, it won the awards for Best Actor (Moura) and Best Director (Filho) along with the FIPRESCI Prize from the International Federation of Film Critics.  It has a very high critical score of 91 ("Universal acclaim") on MetaCritic. I expect  The Secret Agent to be a strong candidate for  glory in the upcoming winter awards season as well.  I recommend it highly.

158 minutes

Grade:  A

Opened in New York City on 11/29/2025 and will open in L.A. on 12/5. Begins screening nationwide at select theaters on 12/12/2025 and more widely on the19th.  In the Bay Area, The Secret Agent opens in S.F. on 12/12/2025 at the AMC Kabuki and Alameda Drafthouse, and on 12/19 at AMC Theaters in San Jose, Emeryville and Santa Clara, as well as the Rialto Elmwood in Berkeley and the Rialto Sebastopol.