Leave it to Kelly Reichardt, writer-director of such sleepy, slow-burning dramas as First Cow and Wendy and Lucy, to make the anti-heist movie. The Mastermind, her shaggy, ‘70s-set film starring Josh O’Connor as the orchestrator of an art museum robbery gone wrong, channels the kind of shaggy ‘70s capers that defined the genre — without any of the sleek, satisfying results of a heist flick. Instead, The Mastermind feels more true to the sinuous core of ‘70s neo-noir like Robert Altman’s The Long Goodbye: meandering, pensive, and melancholy.
The first thing you need to know about The Mastermind is that its title is ironic. Josh O’Connor’s James Blaine Mooney may, in fact, be uniquely terrible at being a criminal. A suburban dad and an architect between jobs, he spends his time with his wife (Alana Haim) and two boys wandering the local art museum, where he swipes little trinkets and observes the sleeping security guards. Unbeknownst to his family, he’s casing the museum for a heist he’s planning with a few of his criminal associates — Guy Hickey (Eli Gelb) and Larry Duffy (Cole Doman) — whom he soon assembles to steal four Dove paintings, which James then plans to sell to his regular fence. But naturally, as is the case with many a heist movie, things quickly fall apart. One of the two guys bails, and James is forced to replace him with Ronnie Gibson (Javion Allen), a seasoned criminal and a “wild card.”
