The Secret Agent

January 05, 2026 00:03:23
The Secret Agent
Flicks with The Film Snob
The Secret Agent

Jan 05 2026 | 00:03:23

/

Show Notes

A man seeking refuge in a coastal city of 1977 Brazil doesn’t know that two men have been hired to kill him, in this brilliant portrait of life under dictatorship. The Secret Agent is the name of a new film by Brazilian writer and director Kleber Mendonça Filho. Right from the start with the title, we have ambiguity. It’s not a spy movie—no one is engaged in espionage. Rather, it’s presenting the experience that is prompted by the idea of a secret agent: always be on your guard, danger lurks around the corner, conceal who you are. In historical terms,…

Other Episodes

Episode 0

February 23, 2021 00:03:29
Episode Cover

Les Carabiniers

Jean-Luc Godard’s misunderstood antiwar film from 1963 exposes the stupidity of war by ridiculing the aesthetics of war movies. The philosopher Simone Weil once...

Listen

Episode 0

July 12, 2021 00:04:39
Episode Cover

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

The film version of August Wilson’s play about a jazz recording session in 1927 features Viola Davis in the title role, and Chadwick Boseman...

Listen

Episode

December 10, 2019 00:04:54
Episode Cover

The Irishman

Martin Scorsese’s latest film depicts the Mafia, and its complicated history with Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa, as a symbol of the corruption of America...

Listen