The Mastermind. 2025. USA. Written and directed by Kelly Reichardt. With Josh O’Connor, Alana Haim, Hope Davis. DCP courtesy MUBI. 110 min.
The Mastermind, the understated auteur Kelly Reichardt’s first return to more suspenseful genre fare since 2013’s Night Moves, is an art heist-caper-turned-character-portrait of a Massachusetts father inching closer to the fringes. A frequent visitor to the sleepy Framingham Museum of Art with his wife and kids, out-of-work architect JB Mooney (Josh O’Connor) enlists a shaggy group of local crooks to swipe a few Arthur Dove paintings from the galleries in broad daylight. As the investigation into the robbery begins, Mooney starts to unravel. Set in 1970, The Mastermind skillfully uses an America upended by the Vietnam War and transformed by the Civil Rights Movement as a backdrop for the frenzied, desperate Mooney’s attempts to stay out of the hands of the authorities. Anchored by a stellar ensemble, including Hope Davis, Bill Camp, Alana Haim, Gaby Hoffman, and John Magaro, The Mastermind’s richly intimate, flawed world is populated by even more flawed characters.
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