"An epic that starts with a very expressive scene. A masterpiece."
— Dwight Brown, DwightBrownInk.com
"This is one of the year’s best films, and one of the most distinctive."
— Matt Zoller Seitz, RogerEbert.com
"Rich, evocative, crafty and exciting, it’s one of the few standout movies of the year."
— Kyle Smith, Wall Street Journal
"A rousing, suspenseful, occasionally hilarious, and ultimately unnerving tale of battling political oppression."
— Bob Mondello, NPR
"You won’t see a better political thriller this year than Filho’s ultra-chic genre entry, loosely in the spirit of a Costa-Gavras picture."
— Tomris, Laffly Elle
"The Secret Agent is the best kind of personal film, imbued with so many things that Mendonça Filho loves, both resurrection and elegy."
— Lindsey Bahr, Associated Press
"When all is said and done, The Secret Agent will prove to be one of the most emotionally surprising and intensely thrilling movies of the season."
— J. Don Birnam, AwardsWatch
"The Secret Agent will stay with you long after the credits, reminding us that courage often hides in the quiet acts of ordinary people forced to live extraordinary lives."
— Alan Ng, Film Threat
"A soulful Wagner Moura stars as a fugitive from the corrupt dictatorship of 1970s Brazil in writer/director Kleber Mendonça Filho’s THE SECRET AGENT, a gripping political thriller."
— Rania Richardson, Film-Forward.com
"With a riveting plot that snakes through an epic running time, this expertly crafted Brazilian film combines comedy, drama and thrills in ways that continually catch us by surprise."
— Rich Cline, Shadows on the Wall
"Take a look at leading man Wagner Moura. That’s a movie star, right there. An Oscar nomination for this political thriller that truly thrills is the next step. Just watch, it’ll happen."
— Peter Travers, The Travers Take
"Fiery and relentlessly paced (its 158 minutes don’t contain a minute of bloat), the political thriller pivoting around themes of paranoia and resistance feels perfectly tuned to the moment."
— Barry Hertz, Globe and Mail
"This smart, brutal, often funny thriller uses the travails of one ordinary man to capture a reactionary era in its daily realities and surreal absurdities, its public cruelty and private decency."
— John Powers, NPR
"Marcelo’s story keeps everything connected and the humanity in the forefront, but the overall effect is still akin to surfing channels late at night, slipping from one delirious after-hours offering to the next."
— David Fear, Rolling Stone
"Such confident skill, combined with the richness of the narrative and the impressively fluid storytelling, renders the film riveting for all 158 minutes of its running time. One is tempted to call it a masterpiece."
— Giovanni Marchini, Camia Sight & Sound
"With Moura's powerful performance framed by a reverent, authentic aesthetic, The Secret Agent is a deeply humanised look at a historical moment of authoritarianism and government corruption. It's a must-see."
— Shannon Connellan, Mashable
"The Secret Agent serves as a warning shot about today and is rife with Filho relishing in surprising audiences, his calling card. That leads to a masterful epilogue that shook me and moved me to my core. This is great filmmaking."
— Randy Myers, San Jose Mercury News
"The Secret Agent is a remarkable work from Mendonça Filho; a beautifully composed film that features some of the best directing, editing, and writing of the year, as well as an enthralling performance by Moura that deserves its accolades."
— Ross Bonaime, Collider
"For Mendonça Filho, who has poured his love for his city, his country and its people into this masterpiece of a film, his favorite way to process anything is through making and watching movies. It's his best film, and the best film of the year."
— Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service
"It’s a gorgeous-looking movie full of impeccable Brazilian jazz that captures the period with such verve. It should feel incongruous for this movie to swing from funny to sad to erotic to polemic, but it’s a thrilling balance beam of directorial control."
— Kayleigh Donaldson, Pajiba
"[Writer-director Kleber Mendonça Filho] crafts a tight story with startling freedom, leaping between characters in order to conjure their fateful interconnections, while giving them all, persecuted and persecutors alike, an identity and a voice."
— Richard Brody, The New Yorker
"It’s the lively, freewheeling quality of The Secret Agent that makes it so compelling. Its characters find passion and community amid a state that seeks absolute control because, after years under a dictatorship, dignity is its own kind of rebellion."
— Alan Zilberman, Washington City Paper
"Anchored by a magnificent Wagner Moura, who delivers one of the knottiest, most complex lead performances of the year, The Secret Agent sneaks up on you — not by virtue of any shocking twists, but simply by how it refuses to be just one thing."
— Hoai-Tran Bui, Inverse
