After its theatrical release in the United States, Cléber Mendonça Filho received praise from many media outlets
After his first appearance Secret agent In cinemas in the United States, the film was praised by American critics.
In the newspaper the New York TimesManohla Dargis’s review praised the film’s tone. “Movies about resistance to tyranny rarely elicit a laugh, let alone turn a severed human leg into a funny joke. And in his latest sweeping film, Secret agentBrazilian director Cléber Mendonça Filho “He adopts a relaxed sensitivity and finds laughter in the midst of horror.”
At the Associated Press, critic Lindsay Bahr said: “Secret agent It’s the best kind of personal film, filled with many of the things Mendonça Filho loves, both resurrection and elegy.
This political thriller stars Wagner Moura, from… Narcosalso serves as a personal and angry look into the past, and as a reminder that time does not heal all wounds. Watch it ASAP!”, praised the magazine’s David Fair Rolling Stone.
Critic Matt Zoller, of Roger Ebert Gate, praised the film as “one of the best films of the year and one of the most memorable,” saying he had seen it three times.
In the magazine The New YorkerRichard Brody particularly praised the director from Pernambuco. “Mendonça conveys righteous and hopeful indignation, a vision of sincere generosity and intergenerational solidarity in the face of relentless power,” he writes.
Newspaper on Monday the 24th The Wall Street Journal The production was also included among the best films of 2025.