Author: Hugo Pagan Soto

The Secret Agent: A Political Thriller Set in Brazil’s Dark Past – TIFF 2025

Posted on by Hugo Pagan Soto

Rating: 5 out of 5.

In 1977, Brazil was in the midst of a military dictatorship. General Ernesto Geisel led the government and was the fourth military leader since the 1964 coup d’état. Against this political backdrop, Kleber Mendonça Filho gives us The Secret Agent (2025), an intense political thriller that revolves around Marcelo (Wagner Moura), a man trying to escape his past. Through the eyes of Marcelo, the director takes us on a journey that revives the dark past of a nation and, through fiction, tells a story that was the reality for thousands of Brazilians during the dictatorship.

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No Other Choice: Park Chan-wook and the Portrait of Modern Life – TIFF 2025

Posted on by Hugo Pagan Soto

Rating: 5 out of 5.

The perfect family dissolves into a fade that takes us to a machine spinning at full speed. With that simple yet powerful transition, Park Chan-wook delivers an absolute omen. In No Other Choice (2025), just a few minutes into the first act are enough for the idyllic life of a family to collapse into complete chaos. Man-soo (Lee Byung-hun) has dedicated his entire life to a company, but in the blink of an eye, he loses his job, and with it, misfortune begins to seep into every corner of his life.

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It Was Just an Accident: Jafar Panahi’s Powerful Drama – TIFF 2025

Posted on by Hugo Pagan Soto

Rating: 5 out of 5.
it was juts an accident

“Do not let your memories weigh more than your hopes” (Persian Proverb)

There are no ornaments or artifices; when the first images gradually appear on the screen, we can feel life without filters. A Simple Accident (2025) by Jafar Panahi is a drama built on a minimalist staging, supported by a story that is both robust and emotionally profound. In Panahi’s world, the narrative is the treasured jewel, and his actors become its jealous guardians, defending it as if with their very lives.

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Caught Stealing (2025): Aronofsky’s Thriller

Posted on by Hugo Pagan Soto

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Like Antoine Doinel standing before the immensity of the sea, Hank Thompson in Caught Stealing (2025) finally confronts the demons of his past. The worlds of Truffaut’s character and Aronofsky’s are as distant as the beaches of Normandy and those of Coney Island, yet both experience a kind of epiphany when facing the vastness of the ocean. Aronofsky has often taken us on journeys that explore the complex psyche of human beings. This time, it comes disguised as a fast-paced thriller—an unusual entry in his filmography, but one that, if we look closely, bears his unmistakable signature.

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Weapons (2025): Horror That Hides a Social Critique

Posted on by Hugo Pagan Soto

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Horror has long been fertile ground for exploitation cinema, but it has also served as a playground for filmmakers to smuggle in sharp social commentary, tucked between jump scares and visceral set pieces. Weapons (2025), the latest from Zach Cregger, confidently walks both paths. It’s a taut, impeccably crafted genre film and, at the same time, an unsettling meditation on violence and its chilling presence within schools and in the lives of children.

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