--- title: "The Secret Agent: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-secret-agent/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/the-secret-agent" critics_score: 87 critics_reviews: 19 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # The Secret Agent (2025): what the critics said Critics' score 87 from 19 reviews: 19 positive, 0 mixed, 0 negative. The reviews for The Secret Agent are almost uniformly warm, and the spread is narrow: nothing lands below a solid pass and several critics reach for the top of the scale. Praise clusters in two places. The first is Wagner Moura, whom most critics single out for a restrained, vulnerable lead performance as a man trying to slip out of the reach of the dictatorship. The second is the recreation of Recife in 1977, which critics describe as sweaty, garish and precise, with the period detail carrying much of the film’s feeling. Many also admire how Mendonça Filho mixes a thriller with absurdist comedy, surreal detours and his own love of cinemas and archives, and most find that the mixture holds. The reservations are few and mild. Deadline calls it overlong and prone to rambling, and The Wrap finds it messy, though it treats the mess as part of the point. Nobody argues it is dull. ## Little White Lies — Rafa Sales Ross Rating 5/5/5. 16 February 2026. Mendonça Filho’s most refined, outright-auteurist work yet, an intimate epic that always delivers the unexpected with head-spinning craft. Moura anchors this tale of history as an afterlife with a terrific encapsulation of hopelessness that masks itself as resilience. [Read the review](https://lwlies.com/reviews/the-secret-agent) ## Empire — Siddhant Adlakha Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 16 February 2026. The critic calls it an astonishing cinematic experience that lures the past into the present, praising the rich period details, vivid supporting characters, surreal detours, and how it roots its story of authoritarianism in deeply human dilemmas and resilience. [Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/the-secret-agent-2025/) ## The AV Club — Natalia Keogan Rating A-. 12 September 2025. The review highlights the film's interweaving of politics, espionage, and cinema love, praising its detailed recreation of 1970s Recife and emotional depth through personal and historical lenses. [Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/the-secret-agent-review) ## The New Yorker — Richard Brody Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 26 November 2025. The critic lauds the film as a political thriller teeming with life, overflowing with sharply drawn characters and offering a bracingly immediate portrayal of history under dictatorship, with inventive cinematic form. [Read the review](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/12/08/the-secret-agent-movie-review) ## The Times — Kevin Maher Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 19 February 2026. It’s a kaleidoscopic riot that quickly becomes a gear-shifting masterpiece. Wagner Moura plays the central character with vulnerability that makes you yearn for him to best Timothée Chalamet. [Read the review](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/film/article/the-secret-agent-review-wagner-moura-oscar-3nvlptw59) ## Evening Standard — Nick Howells Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 17 February 2026. The critic hails it as a hypnotic thriller and piece of cinematic gold, praising Wagner Moura's shimmering lead performance, the scorched equatorial atmosphere, intoxicating music, surreal symbolism, and the deep-fried Brazilian rhythm of its story set during the military dictatorship. [Read the review](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/the-secret-agent-review-wagner-moura-oscars-b1270823.html) ## Vulture Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 26 November 2025. The critic lauds the film's complex portrait of resistance under dictatorship, noting its evocative period detail, strong lead performance, and thematic links to cinema and memory. [Read the review](https://www.vulture.com/article/the-secret-agent-and-the-year-in-movies-about-resistance.html) ## Financial Times — Danny Leigh Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 19 February 2026. Kleber Mendonça Filho’s tale of loss and injustice in 1977 Brazil comes styled with brilliant pulp trappings. The strange, teasing note sets the tone for a rich and singular movie. [Read the review](https://www.ft.com/content/d7a70700-af45-4c80-b383-b52bf3c1c493) ## Slant Magazine — Mark Hanson Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 5 September 2025. The review commends the propulsive thriller's vivid recreation of 1970s Brazil, its mix of genre tension with surreal elements, and its thoughtful engagement with cinema, politics, and personal history. [Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/the-secret-agent-review-wagner-moura-kleber-mendonca-filho/) ## The Telegraph — Robbie Collin Rating 4/5. 20 February 2026. This sparklingly seductive Oscar contender from Brazil’s Kleber Mendonça Filho rivals a Hitchcock thriller. The slipperiness of names and agendas is one of the central themes. [Read the review](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/the-secret-agent-review/) ## Time Out — Dave Calhoun Rating 4/5. 21 May 2025. Festival review. A twisty, tense, languorous 1970s-set Brazilian drama that captures the absurdity and suffocation of life under a corrupt dictatorship. It is vicious and vivid in its sense of place and danger but also has a streak of weirdness and a very human take on the political-crime thriller genre. [Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-secret-agent-review-2025) ## Variety — Peter Debruge Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 18 May 2025. Festival review. The critic calls it a terrific ’70s thriller and dazzling period drama that immerses viewers in 1977 Recife under dictatorship, praising its robust sense-memory, genre-skewing elements, and vivid time-capsule details. [Read the review](https://variety.com/2025/film/reviews/the-secret-agent-review-o-agente-secreto-1236402205/) ## Screen Daily 18 May 2025. Festival review. A sweat-saturated riot of a movie: a dual-timeline thriller powered by anarchic, erratic energy. Tonally an unexpected blend of the bloody gusto of Bacurau and the more thoughtful approach of Pictures of Ghosts, with fascination with archives, oral histories and cinemas. [Read the review](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/the-secret-agent-review-kleber-mendonca-filhos-1970s-brazilian-thriller-is-riot-of-a-movie/5205206.article) ## Sight and Sound 22 May 2025. Festival review. The Brazilian director’s stellar filmmaking and sharp storytelling make this portrait of life under dictatorship as politically incisive as it is entertaining. A consummate cinephile, Mendonça Filho is the rare director who conceives of cinema politically and as entertainment, rendering the film riveting for all 158 minutes. [Read the review](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/secret-agent-masterful-genre-inflected-epic-from-kleber-mendonca-filho) ## The Guardian — Peter Bradshaw 20 May 2025. Festival review. Kleber Mendonça Filho’s study of a man attempting to escape corrupt politics is a tremendous, novelistic study of corruption in high and low places. The film combines visual brilliance, sensual big-city intrigue, shaggy-dog comedy and epically languorous mystery. [Read the review](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/may/20/the-secret-agent-review-brilliant-brazilian-drama-of-an-academic-on-the-run-in-the-murderous-1970s) ## The Hollywood Reporter — David Rooney 18 May 2025. Festival review. The critic praises the film's blend of anarchic humor and genuine suspense in a period political thriller, highlighting Wagner Moura's stellar performance and the director's masterful exploration of Brazil's past. [Read the review](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/the-secret-agent-review-wagner-moura-kleber-mendonca-filho-1236220752/) ## The New York Times — Manohla Dargis Rating Critic’s Pick. 26 November 2025. The critic praises the film as a knockout that finds laughter amid the terror of Brazil's military dictatorship, highlighting its freewheeling sensibility and the standout performance by Wagner Moura. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/movies/the-secret-agent-review.html) ## The Observer — Wendy Ide 19 February 2026. Kleber Mendonça Filho is at the top of his game with the sprawling, anarchic, supremely entertaining 1970s-set thriller. Not a moment drags and every frame is vibrant and full-blooded. [Read the review](https://observer.co.uk/culture/film/article/the-secret-agent-review-anarchic-supremely-entertaining-thriller) ## HeyUGuys — Linda Marric Rating 5/5. 20 February 2026. The film is an expansive, original, and tonally daring epic blending intrigue, absurdist comedy, grotesque violence, and bureaucratic paranoia. It stands out for its refusal to conform to thriller expectations and for Wagner Moura's formidable, deeply human performance as a man navigating moral compromise and existential dread. [Read the review](https://www.heyuguys.com/the-secret-agent-review/) ## The Playlist — Carlos Aguilar Rating A+. 18 May 2025. Festival review. An imposing masterpiece that coalesces the director’s prior aesthetic and ideological concerns into an expansive triumph steeped in history and a palpable adoration for cinema. It matches the caliber of films like Roma in its use of historical context and recreation of a specific time and place, with a chameleonic lead performance by Wagner Moura. [Read the review](https://theplaylist.net/the-secret-agent-review-wagner-moura-commands-stunning-brazilian-crime-drama-steeped-in-history-a-palpable-adoration-for-cinema-cannes-20250518/) ## The Skinny — Ben Nicholson Rating ★★★★★. 17 February 2026. The critic commends the film's novelistic depth in portraying Recife under military rule, weaving a thriller with multiple stories of resistance and community. It praises the dexterous balance of tones, rich details, and strong performances that create cumulative emotional force. [Read the review](https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/new-releases/the-secret-agent) ## Den of Geek — Joe George Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 1 March 2026. The critic highlights how the film finds its revolutionary power in everyday human moments and quiet personal desires amid the dictatorship's banal cruelty and surreal absurdities. It emphasizes the protagonist's simple quest for memory and safety as a form of resistance. [Read the review](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/the-secret-agent-revolutionary-spirit-mundane-humanity/) ## Eye for Film — Anne-Katrin Titze Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 25 September 2025. Festival review. Kleber Mendonça Filho’s film places Marcelo in the tradition of ordinary men thrust into political intrigue, evoking Hitchcock while rooting the story in Recife during 1977 carnival amid Brazil’s dictatorship. It mixes absurdity and realism, mischief and horror, using cinema references and everyday details to show how authoritarianism distorts justice and reality. [Read the review](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/the-secret-agent-2025-film-review-by-anne-katrin-titze) ## The Wrap — Steve Pond Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 18 May 2025. Festival review. The critic describes the film as a mischievous and messy romp set in 1970s Recife during Carnaval, with secret identities, brutal action, and garish period style. Its lack of coherence is part of its charm and deliberate point. [Read the review](https://www.thewrap.com/the-secret-agent-review-70s-brazilian-romp-includes-wagner-moura-and-a-rampaging-severed-leg/) ## Deadline — Pete Hammond Fi1m's normalised score 75/100 (inferred from the text). 18 May 2025. Festival review. The critic finds Wagner Moura convincing as a man of mystery in this political thriller set during Brazil's dictatorship. The film is stylish and exciting on a widescreen scale despite being overlong and sometimes rambling. [Read the review](https://deadline.com/2025/05/the-secret-agent-review-wagner-moura-brazilian-thriller-cannes-film-festival-1236402956/) ## Collider — Ross Bonaime 19 October 2025. The critic calls the film a remarkable, beautifully composed historical thriller with some of the year's best directing, editing, and writing, plus an enthralling lead performance. They single out Wagner Moura's subtly tremendous, restrained work as one of the year's best. [Read the review](https://collider.com/the-secret-agent-review-wagner-moura/) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/the-secret-agent.md