New York 2025 Review: THE SECRET AGENT, Stylish, Inventive Political Thriller on the Intricacies of Historical Memory

The unusual tone and style of The Secret Agent, Kleber Mendonça Filho’s latest film, which premiered in Cannes earlier this year and has by now become Brazil’s official Academy Award submission for Best International Film, is set up during its first few minutes.

At first, we are treated to a montage of some of Brazil's pop culture milestones of the ‘70s, including an iconic telenovela, Escrava Isaura. It is then followed by a scene where a mysterious man (Wagner Moura of Narcos and Elite Squad fame) is being extorted for a pack of cigarettes by a passing police officer, while a barely covered dead body is lying on the ground nearby.

The year is 1977; the military dictatorship in Brazil is still in full swing. The man, whose real name is Armando, but who currently goes by Marcelo, arrives in the town of Refice, where the carnival holiday is raging. As Armando, who is clearly on the run, gets refuge in a house full of other dissidents, he gets a job at the social registration archive, where he tries to unearth any possible information about his late mother, and meets Euclides, the corrupt chief of police. At the same time, in São Paulo, a hit is put on Armando’s head, and two goons start making their way to Refice.

These are only a few of the storylines that make up the web that is the non-linear narrative of The Secret Agent. There is also Armando’s little son, who lives nearby with his grandparents, dreaming of seeing Jaws, even though the film’s poster gives him nightmares; Armando’s father-in-law, who works at a movie theater where The Omen and La Magnifique are currently showing; a human leg, found inside a dead shark; a grandiose brief appearance by Udo Kier, whom the idiot police chief mistakes for a Nazi fugitive; and, in the present day, there are a couple of young students listening to the old tapes, all connected to Armando’s troubles.

In the immortal words of Mattie Ross, time just gets away from us. Just like that, time becomes its own curious entity in The Secret Agent. Much like last year’s Brazilian cinema sensation, I’m Still Here, which also concerned the years of the military dictatorship, Filho’s film is a fragile, imperfect imprint of an era through the lens of an individual human fate.

Thus, the two and a half hours of screen time could have easily been 22 hours, since this story is an epic, if not in form, then definitely in its heart. It's a pulpy tragedy woven from unreliable memories, surreal nightmares, hyperstylized bits illustrating trashy tabloid headlines, and glimpses into the supposedly brighter future.

Filho, a cinema buff and a former film critic, whose previous works include Aquarius and Bacurau, is no stranger to challenging the viewers’ expectations or playing around with genre conventions. So, while the title of his new feature is slightly misleading, perhaps slightly overpromising on the action and thrilling fronts, it does feature both, giving us one of the most energetic blood-spilling suspense sequences in recent years and stubbornly refusing to overexplain the intricacy of its plot.

This way of spinning the narrative isn’t without its faults. For a movie that ends up not revealing many details about its story, it also tends to emphasize certain things a bit too zealously, like the numerous times the camera focuses on a portrait of the then-current president, Ernesto Geisel, as if to make sure everyone gets the idea.

Still, The Secret Agent is much smarter than it might pretend to be at certain moments. What’s even more captivating: It never shies from taking risks, throwing crucial characters into the mix mere minutes before the film’s end, or presenting one memorable scene from the perspective of a zombified leg.

It is also a film that, after basically proclaiming “Let’s get this party started!”, immediately gives up its actual, physical resolution for the sake of an emotional one, which is played out in a way that sticks with you long after the allocated 158 minutes are over.

The film screened during the New York Film Festival. It opens November 26 in a select theatrical release, via Neon.