The Mastermind **** (2025, Josh O’Connor, Alana Haim, Hope Davis, John Magaro, Gaby Hoffmann, Bill Camp) – Classic Movie Review 13,793

Josh O’Connor stars as an unemployed carpenter who plans his first art heist In 1970 Massachusetts, in writer/ director Kelly Reichardt’s 2025 drama film The Mastermind.

Josh O’Connor stars as an unemployed carpenter turned amateur art thief, who plans his first big heist In 1970 Massachusetts, in writer/ director Kelly Reichardt’s 2025 drama film The Mastermind. Obviously it doesn’t go well, quickly unravelling his life, or there wouldn’t be a movie. The titular mastermind J B Mooney is a struggling family man who plots to steal art from a sleepy suburban museum. And, of course, these were the days it was relatively easy to steal art.

Though unfortunately not really a heist movie, The Mastermind is likeable and stylish, with plenty of period and local atmosphere, which is the best thing about it. But it’s a short story, and a downer too, without any special heist excitement or any particular other action excitements really, though there is some occasional tension and suspense. Kelly Reichardt is apparently known for her minimalist films and slow cinema, but The Mastermind evades being too minimalist or too slow. It’s fine actually.

It is a character study, of a sad, pathetic, unfulfilled individual, one of life’s victims, more or less abandoned by friends and family when push comes to shove, and thrown to the lions, but with great visual appeal, plus lots of thrilling vintage cars, and a nice jazz score. It is a visual treat.

It’s entirely O’Connor’s show, and he’s real good, quietly burning, the man from Cheltenham England even seeming and sounding convincingly American. It’s mainly a reacting role, rather than an acting role, and he doesn’t make it an over-acting role, which would be easy and tempting, like he does in The History of Sound. But, despite a good support cast, nobody else gets much of a look-in, with not enough screen time to make an impression. This is a flaw.

It is especially disappointing that Hope Davis and Bill Camp have hardly anything to do as the aloof parents, J B’s mother and father. Alana Haim has an unsympathetic role as J B’s wife Terri Mooney, and Gaby Hoffmann is even more unsympathetic as J B’s art school friend Maude. John Magaro fares a bit better as J B’s art school friend Fred.

An arty heist movie, it’s not afraid to be talky or just silent. It is particularly good that it has the feel and look of a movie of the era it is set in. There are so many vintage cars, and very often we are inside them with the actors. A good plan well carried out. The heist sequence itself is brief, brisk and entertaining.

Kelly Reichardt’s ninth film, it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on May 23, 2025, and was released in the US by Mubi on October 17, 2025.

Reichardt’s screenplay is inspired by real-life events and classic movies, including the 1972 robbery of the  Worcester Art Museum in Massachusetts and the films of Jean-Pierre Melville.

Running time: 110 minutes.

Rightly, but slightly surprisingly, it is one of our Film of Year nominees at the London Film Critics Circle Awards on 1 February 2026.

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,793

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