Why we picked it – Kelly Reichardt is the master of stories about hapless losers. Josh O’Connor is at the top of his game.

Interview with Kelly Reichardt and cast at the New York Film Festival.

Synopsis – Massachusetts, 1970. Unemployed cabinet maker James Blaine “JB” Mooney (Josh O’Connor) is drifting aimlessly through life when he hatches an unlikely scheme: to steal four paintings from the local art museum, chosen not for their worth but simply because he likes them. Borrowing money from his mother under the guise of finding work, he bankrolls three accomplices to carry out the heist. The plan quickly unravels. The getaway driver secures a stolen car but loses his nerve, while during the robbery one thief pulls a gun and assaults a security guard.

JB hides the paintings and returns home to find the FBI questioning his family. One accomplice has already confessed, identifying JB as the mastermind, which he denies. When the third thief demands more money, JB agrees to meet him, only to be kidnapped by an organised crime gang who force him to reveal the paintings’ location. As news of his involvement spreads, JB goes on the run, hiding with former art school friends but wearing out his welcome. He heads for Cleveland in search of refuge but finds contacts there have moved on, and he eventually hitchhikes to Cincinnati. There he pleads his case to his wife over the phone, but she hangs up when he asks for money. Reduced to stealing from an elderly woman, JB disappears into an anti-war protest. When police move in to break up the demonstration, his flight finally comes to an end.

The film – The Mastermind bears the hallmarks of Kelly Reichardt’s cinema: a crime gone awry, a protagonist hopelessly out of his depth, understated humour, and an unresolved ending. JB’s scheme is incompetent from the outset, and its execution descends into farce as every attempt to regain control only deepens his predicament. This is, in every sense, an anti-heist film. Where classic capers celebrate precision, glamour and criminal ingenuity, Reichardt offers confusion, incompetence and failure. Imagine Ocean’s Eleven turned inside out.

Setting the story at the close of the 1960s is no accident. Reichardt has described it as a moment when she thinks Americans were beginning to realise that “this whole freewheeling thing’s not working out”. JB, too old to be drafted, drifts through a world shaped by Vietnam and Nixon while refusing to engage with either. Yet the political turmoil he ignores ultimately catches up with him, becoming the force that seals his fate.

Reichardt’s fascination with art thefts stretches back years. She had long collected newspaper clippings on the subject and has noted how comparatively easy it was to steal art during the 1970s. The film was inspired in particular by the 1972 robbery at the Worcester Art Museum in Massachusetts, a case she revisited after reading coverage of its 50th anniversary, which prompted her to begin work on the screenplay.

Director and Writer: Kelly Reichardt; Cinematographer: Christopher Blauvelt; USA 2025, 110 mins, 12A

inks – imdb The Guardian review The New Yorker review Financial Times review