MASTERMIND, THE
(director/writer: Kelly Reichardt; cinematographer: Christopher Blauvelt; editor: Kelly Reichardt; music: Rob Mazurek; cast: Josh O’Connor (James Blaine Mooney), Alana Haim (Terri Mooney), Bill Camp (Bill Mooney), Jasper Thompson (Thomas Mooney), Hope Davis (Sarah Mooney), Sterling Thompson (Carl Mooney), Cole Doman (Larry Duffy), Gaby Hoffman (Maude), Matthew Maher (Jerry the Driver), John Magaro (Fred), Eli Gelb (Gus Hickey), Javion Allen (Ronnie Gibson), Rhenzy Feliz (Gordon), Amanda Plummer (Louise); Runtime: 110; MPAA Rating: R; producers: Neil Kopp, Vincent Savino, Anish Savjani; MUBI; 2025)
“The heist flick delightfully takes the form of a low-key character study and a morality tale.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Indie filmmaker Kelly Reichardt (“Showing Up”/”First Cow”) masterfully directs this slow-moving arthouse black comedy art heist film. The heist flick delightfully takes the form of a low- key character study and a morality tale. The fictional story is inspired by the real-life heist of four paintings from the Worcester Art Museum in Massachusetts in 1972.
The film is set in 1970 in the sleepy suburban town of Framingham, Massachusetts.
James Blaine Mooney (Josh O’Connor), an unemployed carpenter and an art school drop-out, is the thief. He’s married to Terri (Alana Haim). They have 2 young sons (Jasper Thompson & Sterling Thompson). His father Bill (Bill Camp) is a judge. His mother Sarah (Hope Davis) gives him money to start a new project, but not her love. He uses the funds to pay two hoods (Eli Gelb & Cole Doman) and a getaway driver (Matthew Maher) to rob at gunpoint the local art museum, when it opens in the morning, of four paintings by the American abstract painter Arthur Dove. The plan is to stash the paintings at a local pig farm, and he’ll sell the paintings to a fence the hoods know. He also hired the Black dude Ronnie (Javion Allen), called a “wild card,” to steal the getaway car.
The funniest scene has the hapless James try to carry the paintings up a ladder to the loft on the barn but can’t do it without getting bruised.
The motivation behind the robbery is perhaps a rebellion against the establishment and his judge father (Bill Camp), and to also provide for his family. Or maybe he’s just a bad guy who is not to be trusted.
When things go amiss, the inept James, ironically referred to as the mastermind, becomes the target of the local police and local hoods, after Ronnie snitches on him and the others follow suit. He must go alone on the lam, hoping he can hide with his married friends (John Magaro and Gaby Hoffman). But the couple advise him to perhaps go on alone to Canada like many of the draft-dodgers of that era did.
O’Connor knows how to play a slimy and hapless loser and is the anti-hero who steals the picture. Reichardt knows how to make a film about a vile character likeable to a certain degree.
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It played at the Cannes Film Festival.
REVIEWED ON 11/6/2025 GRADE: B+
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