The Mastermind
A minimalist heist film by Kelly Reichardt (First Cow, Certain Women) in which Mooney (Josh O’Connor) and two accomplices rob a museum in broad daylight during the 1970s.
J.B. Mooney – an unemployed carpenter and former art student – reinvents himself as an amateur art thief. Set against the turbulent backdrop of 1970s America, in the midst of the Vietnam War and the women’s liberation movement, the young man plans his first big heist. In a stroke of overconfidence, he decides to recruit a pair of unreliable partners to rob the local museum. But he doesn’t plan what to with the stolen paintings after the heist – so, not a mastermind at all - and it’s the aftermath that’s the focus of Reichardt’s often incisively funny and masterfully observed film.
This heist drama is a true departure from Kelly Reichardt’s usual minimalist and peacefully rural style. Her filmmaking explores the American experience from a gentle and poetic perspective and often takes a particular interest in working-class characters living in small-town communities.