Movie review
July 23, 2025 · 161 min · R · Portuguese
Woke Score
Lower is better
Review
This 1977-set Brazilian thriller follows a tech expert (Wagner Moura) fleeing corrupt cops and hitmen tied to the military dictatorship while trying to grab his kid and escape during Carnival. The whole story hammers home life under authoritarian rule—surveillance, disappearances, police brutality, and a network of dissidents hiding out. Creators lean hard into institutional critique with surreal jabs at power and memory as resistance. No gender swaps or lectures on modern identity politics, but the anti-regime messaging and class/race undertones are front and center.
Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for The Secret Agent.
Woke representation / casting
Natural Brazilian ensemble with some emphasis on diverse refugees and marginalized victims under the regime, but no forced swaps or tokenism.
Woke political dialogue
Heavy on anti-authoritarian themes, corruption, and resistance—hard to miss the institutional takedown.
Identity-driven story themes
Touches on race, class, and even minor queer persecution as part of broader oppression, but not the main engine.
Western institutional / cultural critique
Core of the film is savage critique of dictatorship, police, and power structures, with clear modern parallels from creators.
Woke character or canon changes
Original story, no remakes or canon tweaks.
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
Political heat in Brazil over “leftist propaganda,” but no widespread anti-woke firestorm.
Creator track record context
Director’s history of activist-themed films boosts the ideological signal here.
Production
