The Secret Agent

Most spy movies are overwhelmed with severe plotting and are multi-layered with an objective amount of espionage that often contains double-crosses, betrayal, and twists and turns. Brazilian filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho, who helmed the instant cult classic Bacurau and Neighboring Sounds, certainly rehashes these elements in his latest engrossing political thriller titled The Secret Agent, but Filho also subverts them with a 70s grindhouse style that consists of dark humor, satire, and a rich atmosphere with its visually pleasing aesthetics and Brazilian locales.

This is a film to really appreciate across the board; it will also require repeat viewings, and it’s quite elaborate across the board. It also features a highly satisfying performance by Wagner Moura as Armando, a former teacher and underground secret agent of the resistance movement who arrives in Recife during Brazil’s carnival holiday, and he seeks refuge with fellow dissenter Dona Sebastiana (Tânia Maria). Marcelo joins other political refugees and war immigrants from the Brazilian Civil War, where Brazil is now run under a military dictatorship under General Ernest Geisel. Brazil just had their Congress dissolved under Geisel, and his power favored autocratic powers over the working class. Meanwhile, it’s revealed that Marcelo is a widower, as his wife recently passed away, and as Armando spends years in espionage, we discover that he has an estranged young son, Fernando (Enzo Nunes), who is being raised by his father-in-law, Sr. Alexandre (Carlos Francisco), who is a projectionist at Cinema São Luiz. This is the same cinema that is explored in Filho’s documentary that was released last year titled Pictures of Ghosts. 

Meanwhile, the local police chief named Euclides, along with his sons Sergio and Arlindo, is called during the holiday to investigate a human leg that was found inside a tiger shark on the coasts of the Atlantic. Euclides ends up offering Armando protection with his refugee status, and he even gives him an alias of Marcelo. Eucido holds abuses of power and arrogance that irritate Armando. Euclides also harasses Hans (Udo Kier), a local tailor who is also a Jewish Holocaust survivor that is accused by the locals of being a Nazi fugitive. As I watched The Secret Agent at the NYFF, I kept thinking how great it is seeing Udo Kier on screen at his age and thinking how he’s aged like a fine wine. Now a month after the festival, it’s saddening to hear of his passing, and his brief performance is quite a standout in The Secret Agent. 

Courtesy Neon

Meanwhile, in São Paulo, the state government hires a few hitmen to kill Armando once they discover his whereabouts, with whom they have a vendetta against. The human leg ends up being disposed of in the Capibaribe River where it suddenly revives itself out of the water and viciously attacks gay men in a public park in a very surrealist moment. In another film, this would feel out of place or jarring, but for Fihlo you are just waiting for a gonzo moment. Unlike most political thrillers, there aren’t too many stale predictable twists and turns. Fihlo is more interested in the life of the time, the ideas of resistance, and the characters and places. Especially the cinema and the courtrooms and other public spaces.

This is a deeply compelling film, as The Secret Agent is a victory of both style and substance. Kihlo, who also wrote the screenplay, deserves a lot of credit for making films that are highly stylized and that always feel subversive. Here it’s a love letter to democracy, ideas, and the cinema, and it’s combative against authoritarianism and autocracy. It’s quite a time for a Brazilian film like this to be released during the aftermath of the Jair Bolsonaro, who was currently prosecuted and sentenced to house arrest for interfering and attempting to overturn election results. Sound familiar?

Filho deserves praise for his visual style and how to shoot digitally while still using vintage camera equipment and styles with anamorphic lenses that give it a 1970s film grain that never feels synthetic. Filho also uses Brazilian streets, neighborhoods, buildings, courtrooms, backrooms, cars, and old gas stations, and the wardrobe and decor make it all visually arresting. When we see a courtroom janitor hiring a street prostitute in the backroom, it feels transportive. This type of detail, artistry, and plotting will require extra attention as you watch, and I suspect this film will gain more traction in the months and years to come. Sadly, with it being an international film and distributed by Neon among much other tough competition, let’s just hope The Secret Agent can make a splash with audiences. The Secret Agent is a real rarity of a film, and it’s a transcendent political thriller that raises the bar for the political thriller.

GRADE B+

THE SECRET AGENT IS NOW PLAYING IN LIMITED THEATERS