‘I’m not a violent person. But this guy… I would kill him with a hammer…’
There is definitely an argument to be had about the relevance of the Oscars (or indeed any awards ceremony) in the year of our lord 2026. My retort to that would be that it’s incredibly unlikely that I would ever have watched The Secret Agent had it not been nominated for Best Picture. Director Kleber Mendonça Filho is completely unknown to me (this is his fourth feature film), aside from Wagner Moura of Narcos fame; I don’t know the cast either and I can count on one hand the number of Brazilian films I have seen in my long and mostly pathetic life. The point I’m making is, I know a bunch of people in my geeky film circle who have watched this film purely because of the Oscars, and that has to be a net good…
In 1977, during a period of political turmoil in Brazil, former professor and widower Armando Solimões (Moura) travels to the northern city of Recife and seeks refuge at a compound operated by former anarcho-communist and all round legend Dona Sebastiana (Tania Maria). There’s loads of other stuff going on but the best thing to do is watch the damn thing to find out what that stuff is.
I thought I knew what The Secret Agent would be based on the opening half an hour – a twisty, espionage thriller in which nothing is what it seems. It turns out it isn’t this at all. Which is good because I don’t like political spy thrillers as a rule so I’m delighted this isn’t that. There is some subterfuge, and lots of people talking in rooms, but The Secret Agent feels more like a series of interrelated short films than a cohesive whole, which makes the whopping 161-minute running time easier to swallow. All the acting is great, the screenplay is somehow both dense but utterly compelling and Filho adds some interesting directorial flourishes that I absolutely did not expect to see in a film of this ilk (a killing spree from a dissected human leg, anyone?). In fact, The Secret Agent is quite unlike any other film doing the rounds this award season or any other season for that matter.
The Secret Agent wasn’t one of my favourite films of 2025 (although it’s not far off), but while ever the Oscars continues to bring more challenging cinema to mainstream audiences it is serving a purpose. Long may it continue.
