In Kelly Reichardt’s dark comedy The Mastermind, a slacker steals valuable paintings from a museum in suburban New England in 1970. But The Mastermind is less of a heist film than a character study of a man with little character.
James Blaine Mooney (Josh O’Connor) is James to his wife and parents and J.B. to his friends. His guiding value is selfishness. With a degree in the arts, he is an occasional cabinet-maker who lets his hardworking wife (Alana Haim) support his family with a real job, while he sponges off his mom (Hope Davis). Instead of working, J.B. spends his time fantasizing how to make money without working. He lands on a scheme to rob the local art museum and fence the paintings.
He is smart enough to get the paintings out of the museum and hide the loot. But then his own character flaws begin to betray him. Having watched many crime movies, we all know that any criminal conspiracy is only as strong as its weakest link. But J.B. has employed three untrustworthy low lifes as crime partners. Of course, J.B. is too unreliable himself to recognize reliability in anyone else. And then The Mastermind follows J.B. as he tries to avoid the consequences of his choices – and his flight becomes a consequence in and of itself.
What makes this a comedy? The running joke is that J.B. never makes the responsible, prudent choice throughout the movie, always taking what he sees as the easy path, regardless of morality or loyalty.
Usually, a movie audience roots for the heist to be successful. Here, we don’t sympathize with the museum, which doesn’t value its collection enough to invest in even the most basic security. But we don’t care about J.B. either, because he is a shit who only needs the money so he doesn’t have to get a job. We do care about other people in J.B.s life, and he ruins the lives of his wife and family, puts at risk his dear friends and his own sons, fleeces his mother, and surely humiliates his father.
Josh O’Connor is very good as a man who never misses a chance to think only of himself. I would recommend another film with a heist element, La Chimera, where O’Connor plays a more complex character.
Fine actors all, Davis, Haim, Bill Camp, Gaby Hoffman and John Magaro are perfect in supporting roles. Hoffman is especially strong as an old friend who recognizes how dangerous J.B.’s affable charm really is. Davis has an inspired moment when she breaks a corn cob in half – and then quickly assesses which half has moire kernels,
Writer-director Reichardt is an acclaimed indie filmmaker who usually makes languorous, observational movies and gets excellent performances out of actors like Michele Williams, Lily Gladstone and Jared Harris. Her Wendy and Lucy is a masterpiece. There is more humor (the quiet, sly kind) and much, much more plot in The Mastermind than in Reichardt’s other works. I keep waiting for Reichardt to make another Wendy and Lucy, which is probably as unfair as waiting for Orson Welles to make another Citizen Kane.
Reichardt, who was only six years old in 1970, completely nails the verisimilitude of the time and place.
The very best thing about The Mastermind is the original music by Rob Mazurek, usually a solitary jazzy cornet or drums. The Mastermind is Mazurek’s first feature film score, but his Wikipedia page details an impressive and varied career as a musical artist.
Bottom line: The Mastermind is an exceptionally well-made film about a guy who we wouldn’t like to know in real life, but who ultimately gets his just desserts.
