Movie full of interesting characters in completely disconnected stories, with literally no conclusion whatsoever. Great acting (specially by wagner moura), well timed humor, incredible scenarios that makes you fell immersed in 70s Brasil, all that diminished by an exaggerated focus on symbolism and meta storytelling, failing to create a cohesive and complete story on its own.

Gente, Kleber Mendonça Filho não brinca em serviço, o homi é brabo demais... Ontem, fui assistir O Agente Secreto esperando um filme de ação político padrão e saí com a cabeça explodindo e um pesadelo com a tal da Perna Cabeluda chutando tudo! rs No filme, a montagem perfeita vai te levar para um Recife de 1977, onde tudo "começa" Wagnão está impecável como Marcelo/Armando...e aqui já vem a primeira ideia genial do título: ele não é um 007, longe disso. É um professor, um cara comum fugindo da repressão. Ele vira um "agente secreto" por pura necessidade de sobrevivência, tendo que mentir, se esconder e fugir... E isso, de engraçado não tem nada. Aquela ironia é dolorida que mostra como a ditadura transformou cidadãos comuns em fugitivos e destruiu famílias inteiras 😤 Em alguns momentos, o filme mistura aquele realismo social que a gente já conhece do Kleber Mendonça Filho com umas "esquisitices" que fazem todo o sentido quando você para pra pensar A Lenda da Perna Cabeluda aparece aqui não só pelo folclore, mas como a cortina de fumaça perfeita. Enquanto o povo tinha medo de uma perna pulando na rua, o terror real do Estado comia solto nos porões...era assim que a imprensa da época tinha que se portar A presença constante do filme Tubarão é brilhante, porque o "tubarão" do Marcelo não tá no mar, tá no DOPS, na polícia política, essa é analogia do monstro Os cartazes dos Trapalhões e das Pornochanchadas dão aquela ambientada linda, mostrando o escapismo da época, a mesma cortina de fumaça sendo criada O gato de duas cabeças também faz parte desse surrealismo que é o puro suco do Brasil de 77 O filme segue o mesmo caminho: retrata a ditadura sem jamais pronunciar a palavra. Perfeito!!! No fim, todas essas estranhezas servem pra gente sentir na pele a paranoia daquele tempo, rir de nervoso, se assustar, dar aquele nó na garganta e tocar nas feridas da nossa história. Nasce um clássico!

Too long, confusing, boring. Waste of time. Unnecessary heavy sexual scenes. Cinematography is the best thing, the rest is meh

Se não tivessem economizado em sonoplastia por falta de orçamento (única explicação plausível pra tantos minutos de completo silêncio) daria um 4.

The Secret Agent makes a lot of baffling decisions that prevent its strongest aspects from shining through. For one thing, the movie waits until halfway into the runtime to give us the background into our main character and why events are happening to him as well as what motivates him. In fact, this is a very common theme throughout the movie. In that flashback itself, the character himself says that he told the story in the wrong order and after showing us a scene filled with consequences, he talks about what led to that scene. This decision to put the cart before the horse is clearly intentional, but I think it is a mistake. It does not generate an air of mystery to not know why this character is on a run. It just makes it hard to care about seeing effects of a cause without knowing that cause first. As I'm writing this review, I can barely recall the first half of the movie prior to that flashback because so much of it didn't have the background required to make them engaging, and I think had some of those scenes been put after this backstory, they would have landed way better. There are also a handful of really weird, almost surreal scenes that feel out of place in this movie, including the opening scene. They are darkly comic, and I get that they are representing the type of wanton corruption and violence that existed within Brazil at the time, but they never stitch together with the rest of the narrative. Finally, this movie is missing an ending. After the halfway point, the movie seems to be actually building momentum, and part 3 is filled with some thrilling scenes. It starts to feel like all these disjointed threads will finally come together in an epic and bloody conclusion. Except, the movie doesn't give us that. Suddenly, the movie loses all interest in seeing the various storylines to their end. So many of them are literally left unresolved or happen offscreen, left up to viewer interpretation. To call it anticlimactic would be understating how much of a misfire it is. Instead, the movie tries to focus on some strange framing story (that again has not had enough of a background to make us care about it), and then it ends on a scene that seems to be trying to be insightful and pithy but feels unearned and frustrating. At 2h41m, having a rushed and incomplete ending is unacceptable. There are just lots of these baffling decisions, but the sad part is that there is clearly a lot of craft that went into this movie. Wagner Moura is really good even if I do not think he is at Best Actor level. The cinematography is fantastic with gorgeous transitions and colors that feel nostalgic while also full of depth. In a vacuum, scenes can be expertly blocked and sharply written. At times, the movie feels like a classic. However, its flaws are numerous and severe enough that I just felt annoyed by the end of the movie instead of enjoying it.