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The Secret Agent

Play trailer 1:44 Poster for The Secret Agent R Now Playing 2h 38m Drama Mystery & Thriller History Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
99% Tomatometer 139 Reviews 89% Popcornmeter 250+ 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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The Secret Agent

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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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Critics Reviews

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Max Weiss Baltimore Magazine 2d
3.5/4
The Secret Agent is a feast of sorts, overstuffed and beautiful, funny and sad. Go to Full Review
Michael Andor Brodeur Washington Post 5d
4/4
The Secret Agent suggests something more consequential with its gripping portrait of political resistance: that survival is a matter of both watching and watching over one another. Go to Full Review
Kimberley Jones Austin Chronicle 6d
4.5/5
The period detail is a marvel, the era’s music a most excellent groove, and the cast a top-to-bottom wowzer of interesting faces and eclectic bodies. Go to Full Review
Dustin Chang Floating World 11h
The Secret Agent is about rebuking anti-intellectualism by having university researchers both past and present the heroes of the film which is also very pertinent in our own political climate. Go to Full Review
Ryan Swen Taipei Mansions 19h
The scale afforded here allows for the most vivid canvas Mendonça Filho has ever painted on. Go to Full Review
Robert Roten Laramie Movie Scope 1d
C+
Suspense builds in the first three-quarters of the film towards a violent confrontation, but suddenly, the dramatic brakes are applied, and it all ends in an anticlimax, almost like the director ran out of film. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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Rosalind R 1d One of the best movies Ive seen in a long time! See more Patrick 2d While the acting was excellent, the plot was nearly impossible to follow, and I felt underwhelmed witht the ending. Based on various reviews, I was expecting a much better movie, and I was definitley disappointed with "The Secret Agent". See more Rodney F 3d Great film. Definitely worth a rewatch. Explores some great themes on memory, identity, and things that are hidden, masked, or taken away from us. See more LF 3d Had to pay close attention which I appreciate See more Jonathan N 3d Best Film of 2025, hands down. Noir, comedy, spy thriller, dystopian hellscape of the Brazilian historical junta, explicit gay and hetero sex, thugs, homage to 1970s cinema- even some horror fantasy! WOW. Haven’t been this impressed by amalgamation of genres since EEAAO, nor as impressed by time fracture in service of storytelling since Egoyan’s “The Sweet Hereafter.” D@&n. What f-ing good filmmaking. And good naturalistic writing. The story is slowly revealed in a way that’s never annoying, but completely enrapturing. I wish this kind of film was more a feature, and less of a bug, of contemporary cinema. See more Harriet M 3d I wanted to like it, due to my personal history with Brazil of that era, but couldnt find reason to.. compared to Ainda Estou aqui, it fails on all counts. See more Read all reviews
The Secret Agent

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Movie Info

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
Box Office (Gross USA)
$975.3K
Runtime
2h 38m
Sound Mix
Dolby Digital
Aspect Ratio
Digital 2.39:1
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