The Secret Agent

Minna Kelly

“I thought this was just about perfect. A Brazilian friend of mine was concerned that North Americans wouldn’t find it interesting without the historical context (and I’m sure some background reading on the military dictatorship in the 70s wouldn’t hurt) but I experienced it as an outstanding political thriller——intimate, funny and universal in its portrayal of fear, violence and love.”

even*cleveland

“"But the movie I can’t quite shake is Kleber Mendonça Filho’s The Secret Agent. ... I’m thinking particularly of its opening sequence. In it, our hero, Armando (Wagner Moura) drives into an Esso gas station where he notices that there’s a dead body lying in the dirt, covered awkwardly with a piece of cardboard. The attendant casually tells him that the corpse has been there for some days and that”

Zoë Rose Bryant

“favorite film from this year's pre-oscars catch-up (though yes, yet another boyfriend rec as well). such a cutting exploration of the ceaseless struggle against fascism and systemic corruption, the ease with which orchestrators of evil frequently erase any record of their wrongdoing, the natural inclination of societies to go along with this historical revisionism for their sanity and safety, and”