A title card opens Kleber Mendonça Filho’s electrifying new film The Secret Agent, cheekily setting the scene: It’s 1977 Brazil, “a time of mischief.”
It’s an odd way to describe a movie that takes place at the height of the country’s military dictatorship, but it’s in keeping with Filho’s shaggy, warm-blooded political thriller, a movie that splits the difference between neo-noir, languorous character drama, and, occasionally, magical realist comedy. Anchored by a magnificent Wagner Moura, who delivers one of the knottiest, most complex lead performances of the year, The Secret Agent sneaks up on you — not by virtue of any shocking twists, but simply by how it refuses to be just one thing.
