The Mastermind

A family outing to the (fictional) Framingham Museum of Art in Massachusetts, sometime in the early 1970s. While his wife Terri (Alana Haim of the Haim sisters) and their two kids take in the art, James B. Mooney (arthouse and Hollywood heartthrob Josh O’Connor) keeps a closer eye on the security system, as he’s planning to steal a couple of paintings by American abstractionist Arthur Dove. Beneath the seventies clothes and cool charm, James is a lonely, unemployed carpenter gradually growing distant from his family, and society. He leans on the generosity of his mother and hides behind the prestige of his father, a high-ranking judge. Even the political protests in the streets leave him cold. While the Vietnam War scars the lives of many Americans, Mooney is sinking into a hole of his own making.

Inspired by various real-life art heists, director Kelly Reichardt spins her own take on the heist movie. Widely regarded as one of America’s greatest chroniclers, particularly of those living on the fringes, Reichardt has been dubbed “the patron saint of American outcasts” by film magazine Humbug. Her films are often quiet, contemplative portraits of lives lived on the margins. She doesn’t favour action or intricate plotting, but finds beauty in the flaws of everyday people. The Mastermind steers well clear of genre staples like Ocean’s Eleven or Reservoir Dogs, aligning more closely with the austere style of Robert Bresson and Jean-Pierre Melville than with Tarantino’s violent flair, though it’s laced with a surprising amount of deadpan humor.

After intimate portraits of women in Wendy and Lucy and Certain Women, contemporary critiques like Night Moves, and frontier tales First Cow and Meek’s Cutoff, Reichardt turns her gaze - for the first time - toward the turbulent 1970s, an era marked by anti-war protests that filled the streets (the U.S. would ultimately withdraw from Vietnam in 1975). The suburbs, once sold as the cradle of the American Dream, were home to adults who dared to dream, yet flew too close to the sun. James Mooney is one of them.