The Secret Agent (2025): I saw many people were particularly appreciative of Kleber Mendonça Filho‘s movie. It’s not unexpected, given how consistently exceptional he has been in the last decade. In this one we experience a cross-generational drama, which irreverently captures the chaotic Brazil of the late 70s. You can probably imagine what that means: crime, corruption and a bunch of craziness. Modern cinema loves to explore the South American 70s and 80s, not least because themes are recurring both locally and around the world. TSA stars Wagner Moura as Marcello/Armando, a professor who made life difficult for a local baron and put himself in his crosshairs. It’s a story that demands your patience and attention. It takes a while to understand what’s going on and who’s who, with many-a-character populating this densely textured moment in time. When it all comes together, it remains unorthodox, playing with its narrative form and continuously blending the expected with the unexpected. It’s justifiably on the list of the best movies of the year and I would go so far as to say that it warrants its nearly three hour runtime. 8
Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022): Talking of ridiculous, why not just revisit this soon-to-be-oldie? From Halina Reijn, whose lukewarmly received Babygirl (2024) is still on my watchlist, we explore Gen Z privilege in the self-consuming paranoia bubble. Everyone’s after you, if you’re rich and pretty, right? Actually, if you’re just rich, full stop. And nobody is more after you than your best friends. But after you first ditch the wannabes. There are some shifts in the movie which are hard to take to, though I will write that down to the level of substance abuse our characters are enjoying. It’s just a shame that the wit it holds in to fully release in one sequence isn’t more evenly spread out. Other than that, if you like iPhone lit shots and musically themed hysteria, this one will scratch that itch. 7
One More Shot (2025): Even when they are silly, which they usually are, there’s something fun about time-loop movies. This one brings us back to the glorious days of Y2k, as a group of friends gather for a seminal New Year’s Eve party. Minnie, feeling her life is passing her by, hopes to rekindle a love affair with Joe, but to her dismay he shows up with a new girlfriend. She takes a swig from a tequila/mezcal bottle she received ten years prior and it, very expectedly, initiates said time loop. Every new swig brings her back at the beginning of the night, so she absolutely finds herself compelled to use up said magical powers to woo her ex-lover. It’s…ridiculous. But then there are some interesting twists along the way and the movie has a great soundtrack and generally cool vibes, so I tolerated it well. 6
Twisted Yoga (2026): I am venturing off the beaten path and reviewing this Apple-produced mini-series, which could just as well have been a movie. Told in three parts, it takes the testimony of several women who were abused in the infamous cult of Gregorian Bivolaru, a Romanian yoga guru. I was young when Bivolaru was arrested in the 2000s but it was a big thing in the media, which led me to believe this was not in any way a present-day story. Guess I missed the 2023 news cycle, when Bivolaru was arrested by the French authorities, after being once more accused of some heinous acts against women. The problem is a matter of consent: all the participants embarked on this spiritual journey willingly and became victims of the psychological machinations which define cultish behaviours. I’m no fan of any cults, but some are convincingly more criminal than others, with this elaborately structured enterprise making the list. Unfortunately, the documentary fails the gravity of its own subject matter. Its testimonials are sourced from several victims (and one happy client), who mostly seem to come from above-average privilege, and offers personal reconstructions detailing the warping of their minds. Yet it doesn’t go outside the confines it sets out for itself. The number of people affected by the cult must be in the hundreds, if not thousands. Maybe it’s a legal thing, but I kept wanting to understand more of the context, hear from field experts, and get a better image of the failings of (Romanian) justice that have allowed Bivolaru to exploit people for decades. Alas, Twisted Yoga is mostly superficial in its approach, leaving many questions unanswered. 6‘
Germanwings: What Happened on Flight 9525 (2025): It’s rare to come across a documentary that feels so ill-conceived. This story of the disaster that led to the death of all 150 on board plays like needless rummaging through unprovable truths, exploiting the grief of surviving family members while offering a platform to conspiracy theorists. Maybe this is the kind of stuff that gets views on YouTube, but you have to at least make a compelling case of it. Here, all we have are hypotheticals that you cannot completely rule out, but that’s very little to build a serious claim upon. We do at least get a factual history of the immediate aftermath to the crash, yet I can’t get myself to really recommend this to anyone. There’s a lot better material on the topic on the internet. 5
tributary stu 
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