'The Secret Agent' Takes You By Surprise

‘The Secret Agent’ Review: Wagner Moura Tries to Leave History Behind in Kleber Mendonça Filho’s Beautifully Remembered Period Thriller

"Bacurau" director Kleber Mendonça Filho returns with a vividly textured epic about a man trying to get out of 1970s Brazil or die trying.

'The Secret Agent' Takes You By Surprise

NEONA 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 reali…

‘The Secret Agent’ Hits U.S. Theaters to Raves — 92 on Metacritic

It’s a holiday in the U.S., and let’s all be thankful we have a few great films playing in theaters this week, although in limited rollout. No great Hollywood titles currently playing, although “Predator: Badlands” comes closest to being “good.”Although I found this year’s edition of Cannes to be middle-tier, it turns out the rest of the year in cinema would be fairly weak in terms of genuine knockouts, and the Cannes titles have risen above mos…