In the lead-up to the 2026 Academy Awards, many people try to watch all 10 Best Picture nominees to see which movies should be considered the best of the year. However, with how long it takes to find and watch all of the films, it can be easy to miss one and then have no idea why it was nominated for Best Picture. But now, you do not have to worry about missing a nominee: the Road to the Oscars series has arrived! Over the past several weeks, I have been watching and writing reviews for all 10 Best Picture nominees so that you, faithful Justice readers, can hear my opinions about the films and gain some insight into why each movie was nominated.

Spoilers ahead for “The Secret Agent” and “Bugonia.”

“The Secret Agent” — Dir.  Kleber Mendonça Filho

“The Secret Agent” is not a standard spy movie. In fact, now that I have seen it, I would hesitate to call it a spy movie at all, even with its undercover protagonist, assassins, corrupt policemen and secret phone calls. Instead of a spy movie akin to “James Bond” or “Jason Bourne,” “The Secret Agent” follows a college professor who is hunted during Brazil’s military regime in the 1970s. Armando, who is given the false name of Marcelo for his protection, is an average person who just wants to escape Brazil with his son so they can start over. Putting a college professor into an assassination story was very unconventional, and combined with the striking cinematography, quirky characters and fantastic storytelling, “The Secret Agent” became more than a spy movie.

A part of what makes “The Secret Agent” such a distinct film is the way the script handles its audience. There is very little exposition, and it feels as though the movie trusts that the viewer will be smart enough to understand what they are seeing without too much explanation— something that has been lost in the age of streaming movies. In the opening scene, Wagner Moura’s Armando pulls up to a gas station and sees a dead body covered in cardboard lying out by the road. The casual conversation about the body with the station owner does not explicitly mention Brazil’s military government in the 70s. Yet the audience understands that the dead body is not abnormal simply because the conversation is casual . “The Secret Agent” trusts that the people watching do not need every plot point spelled out. Everything comes together neatly in the end, even though for the majority of the runtime, there seem to be huge disconnects between different plot threads. The lack of exposition was very refreshing and made me more invested in understanding what I was watching. 

The ensemble of characters in “The Secret Agent” really brings the film to life. Armando is an  introverted character who has been placed in incredibly dire circumstances. Based on how Armando would interact with his son, it was believable that, before he had to go on the run, Armando was simply a college professor with a loving family. Then, in other scenes, as Armando would scan the room or inconspicuously search filing cabinets at his job, the more calculating side of his character would be on full display. An unexpected standout of the ensemble, however, was Tânia Maria, who plays Dona Sebastiana, the caretaker of the hideout where Armando lives. Dona Sebastiana’s deadpan humor, mixed with her caring personality, was really entertaining. Although she does not have the most screentime out of the ensemble, her few minutes on screen are some of the most memorable of the whole film.

The cinematography and lighting of “The Secret Agent” are beautifully distinct. Most of the film is edited to look as though it was shot using Technicolor, resulting in vibrant colors with very clear contrast. Filho uses this variance to his advantage, dressing the characters and settings in as many eye-catching colors as possible, resulting in brightly lit and recognizable shots. The camerawork is also exquisite, with a fantastic use of close-ups on characters during conversations in a style reminiscent of filmmaker Wes Anderson.

The film’s ‘big twist’ is that while we are watching events in the 1970s, a researcher in the present day is learning about the series of events we, the audience, have been watching. She is listening to tapes, reading newspapers and scanning photographs, digitizing the collection. The audience is learning the details that Flávia, played by Laura Lufési, finds, leaving the question about how reliable the information is. At the end of the film, Flávia’s investment in Armando’s story leads her to his hometown, where she meets Armando’s son. As Flávia tells him about what she has learned about his father, Fernando — played in this scene by Moura — says that he has no memories of his father, and any recordings she gives him will not change that. The two say goodbye outside the hospital, which used to be an old cinema, leaving the audience to sit and think about the speed of time, memories and life.

Rating: 8.5/10: “The Secret Agent” is filled with nuanced characters, settings and a unique story. Although its 2-hour and 40-minute runtime is reasonably used, some plot points can get lost in the length, occasionally taking away from the otherwise very entertaining movie.

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“Bugonia” — Dir. Yorgos Lanthimos

The slogan of Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Bugonia” should be “question everything always.” In a film all about conspiracy theories, aliens, capitalism and how people can be insistent about beliefs even when clear evidence is in front of them, the audience is left grasping at the truth even after the credits roll. Lanthimos is known for including heavy commentary about the world in his films, and “Bugonia” is no different. The film takes on the medical system, police, sexual abuse, conspiracy theories and the manipulation of capitalist chief executive officers on both people and the environment, all without it feeling overly blunt. It is a strange film, but strange in an eye-catching way that makes it hard to look away.

And the strangest part? There is no real protagonist.

In “Bugonia,” two cousins named Teddy and Don, played by Jesse Plemons and Aidan Delbis, respectively, kidnap CEO Michelle Fuller, played by Emma Stone, because Teddy is certain that Fuller is an alien from the Andromeda galaxy that has been running experiments on his mother. According to Teddy, the Andromedans have infiltrated humanity and are spreading misinformation to keep humans content and use them for resources, similar to how humans use bees to make honey. Don, Teddy’s cousin, follows along with what Teddy tells him to do because Teddy promises that once the Andromedans are gone, life will improve for humans. Unfortunately for Teddy and Don, Fuller continues to claim that she is completely human. 

What “Bugonia” does beautifully is keep the audience confused, almost to a fault. While watching, I was constantly switching between feeling nervous for Fuller, since she must be a human and Teddy must be wrong, to believing that Teddy could be right and Fuller could, in fact, be an alien. The film does not force the switch in the audience’s perspective, but as it reveals more information over the course of the film, it is nearly impossible to deduce the true answer, even after it has finished. As I mentioned before, there is no real protagonist to the film. Both Fuller and Teddy commit appalling acts, with Fuller using manipulation that ends up getting both Don and Teddy’s mother killed, and Teddy kidnapping and murdering multiple people, although many of the murders take place before the events of “Bugonia.” By the end, Teddy’s deranged and pitiful personality makes it nearly impossible for the audience to root for his victory. Not that Fuller is much better — she is still a rich CEO who manipulates and uses less fortunate people for her benefit, making it challenging for the audience to sympathize with her as well. Even the policeman who checks on Teddy a couple of times has a dark past, as it is implied that he abused Teddy when Teddy was a kid. In fact, I would argue the only morally good character in “Bugonia” is Don, who simply wants to make Teddy happy.

Unfortunately, even with the distracting puzzle of whether Michelle Fuller is an alien, there were odd details in the script that I could not ignore. While Emma Stone gives a convincing performance, Fuller’s lack of panic after being captured felt ridiculous, even if she was an alien. There is no jumpiness when she first wakes up, only a cold and methodical person who reacts as though she gets kidnapped every other week. The dinner scene, while certainly an interesting conversation, ends ridiculously, as for whatever reason Fuller drops the alien act to negotiate with Teddy, even though it has already been established he has no intention of negotiating. It seemed as though the writer wanted a fight in the dining room and needed to tweak Fuller’s plan to spark the fight. The final off-putting moment was when Fuller absolutely has the opportunity to escape and does not take it. While Teddy takes his bike to give his mom a ‘cure’ (it's antifreeze), Fuller gets out of her chains and finds a secret room with all of Teddy’s research. Even if she is an alien, Fuller has more than enough time to examine the evidence, get into her fully operational car, escape and come up with a plan. Instead, she waits patiently for Teddy to come back so she can confront him for seemingly no reason. There are other examples, but these were the most prominent plot-convenience and small errors that took me out of the wild experience of “Bugonia.” The twist ending of the film, which I will not spoil here, almost makes up for these issues, but does not do quite enough to erase them from my memory.

Rating: 8.5/10 — While “Bugonia” is an  elaborate story filled with compelling commentary and strong characters, the accumulation of plot conveniences and small details that are ignored damages the foundation of a film about questioning small details and facts.

If this is the first Justice review of the Oscar nominees you have seen, consider looking at my other reviews of what the Academy has decided were the best films of 2025 to see why they were nominated!