1/15/26 - The Secret Agent (2025)

So rich and full of texture, though it is of a time and place that is foreign in almost every way to me. Yet, the feelings, events, and performances are untouchable by time or distance. Chief among them was Moura who exuded the gamut of emotional baggage, not only of the character but emblazoning across his face the weight of the time and place.

Tale spun not in the normal or expected way but still packs the intensity and unsettling hum of the hidden and hunted. The director Filho has a knack of taking their viewer on an enchanting journey through the bizarre and the mundane, but with the life and death consequences of social oppression & justice looming like a shadowy reaper in the stillness between breaths. I didn’t recognize before seeing the film, but knowing this director did the wonderful Bacurau before this made the more…unusual choices click into place. You never know what you might see with his films but it is always interesting, if not languid and unfamiliar.

It had the best faces in a long time. Just a collection of interesting and authentic, but with history and meaning written out in their expressions and nuances.

The setting, characters, and the aura of plot all feel quite textured. The totality feels lived in and humid, saturated with passion and tension.

Dripping. Contoured. Fascinatingly edited and stylishly shot. Huge recommend.