‘The Secret Agent’
Director: Kleber Mendonca Filho
Starring: Wagner Moura, Roberio Diogenes
The Brazilian director’s slow-burn political thriller is visually stunning and horribly tense. Set during his homeland’s turbulent 1970s — under a military dictatorship that committed extensive human rights abuses — “this ambitious, layered, and beautifully realized movie is loaded with timely reminders of what happens when political violence and moral turpitude are normalized,” our reviewer wrote. Moura is compelling as an academic on the run, having accused a government minister (correctly) of corruption. And Diogenes makes corrupt cop Euclides one of the great screen villains of recent years. The film is never didactic, though; Filho makes his points subtly and with dark humor.
‘Hamnet’
