Wagner Moura

Wagner Moura keeps his shoulders down and his voice level in The Secret Agent (2025), considering how much to smile at the person across the desk. As Marcelo, he has to look ordinary while calculating what he can safely reveal. Kleber Mendonça Filho gives him room to make those small adjustments matter, and the slight relaxation in his face when he is with his son tells us how much effort the caution takes. It is the performance we would start with, though the film’s present-day passages make its length felt.

His breakthrough in Brazil was Capitão Nascimento in Elite Squad (2007), followed by international recognition as Pablo Escobar in Narcos (2015–16). He learnt Spanish for Narcos, though his accent drew criticism from some native Spanish speakers. He subsequently declined roles to avoid being typecast. The parts that interest us most give him room to look frightened without asking for sympathy, and make use of the humour that can survive even when his characters have good reason to be anxious.

In Alex Garland’s Civil War (2024), his war journalist Joel gets a visible kick out of gunfire. Moura does not apologise for that excitement, which makes Joel an uneasy companion to Kirsten Dunst’s watchful Lee. Dunst gives the film its strongest performance, but his eagerness supplies a useful contrast to her stillness. We would not pretend either performance resolves the film’s frustrating unwillingness to explain its war, though Moura makes Joel’s appetite for danger clear enough.

Dope Thief (2025) makes better use of his warmth, pairing his Manny Carvalho with Brian Tyree Henry’s Ray Driscoll. Playing petty criminals who pose as DEA agents, they make the friendship feel established without having to advertise it. We laughed at their impersonation, then worried about them because their dependence on each other makes the foolishness feel dangerous. Peter Craig’s series keeps adding complications, and the plotting becomes more tiring than the company. Try it for the pair of them, with a tolerance for a crime story that takes longer than it needs to.