The Mastermind (2025)

3 1/2 Stars (out of 4)

Art Alecs

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Kelly Reichardt's ironically-titled ninth feature The Mastermind is a shaggy, bad-luck crime story that deliberately, and brilliantly, sucks anything thrilling or glamorous out of the promised life of an art thief.

James "J.B." Mooney (Josh O'Connor) is visiting the Framingham Museum of Art in Worcester, Massachusetts, with his family, wife Terri (Alana Haim) and two boys. It's 1970. He takes the opportunity to steal a small figure, just to see if he can do it. Proving that security is lax, he gets the idea to steal four abstract paintings by Arthur Dove from the same museum.

He assembles a team and cons his mother (Hope Davis) out of some money, lying to her about needing supplies for an upcoming job. The theft, for the most part, goes smoothly. J.B. seals the paintings in a protective case and hides them. But things start to take a turn when his accomplice, Gibson (Javion Allen), gets himself arrested for a different robbery.

The Mastermind has echoes of two previous Reichardt crime-centered movies. First Cow is about a cook who tries to get rich off of biscuits made from stolen cow's milk, and Night Moves is about a trio of radical environmentalists who blow up a dam and find themselves destroyed by guilt.

All three movies demonstrate the allure of crime, but quickly and subversively switch to the fallout. This time, even the robbery seems absurdly anticlimactic, with one of J.B.'s crew quitting at the last second, and a sad, desperate tussle with an aged security guard. (The scruffy 1970s production design and jazzy music score looms over everything.) J.B. has a small moment of victory as he admires the paintings in his living room before packing them up and hiding them, but, almost as an omen, his ladder accidentally falls after he hides them in a hayloft, and he is forced to jump down. His luck never improves.

Reichardt's style lies in her keen observation of moments, small interactions that may seem meaningless, but actually reveal everything. When J.B. eats meals with his parents, his domineering father (a great Bill Camp) reminds him of his failures by comparing him to the successes of others. When J.B. is unceremoniously picked up by a carload of criminals, the driver, Jerry (the memorable character actor Matthew Maher) tells him what he did wrong: "never work with drug addicts, dealers, or wild cards. You know… for next time."

J.B. finds one more small moment of peace with friends (John Magaro, from First Cow, and Gaby Hoffmann) before losing all sense of humanity and normalcy, falling into desperation. The main character of The Mastermind was never the master of anything. But Reichardt surely is.