Reichardt pulls a heist: ‘The Mastermind’

Cinema | January 19th, 2026

By Greg Carlson

There is a great scene in the middle of Kelly Reichardt’s excellent movie “The Mastermind” when protagonist James Blaine Mooney (Josh O’Connor) is chastised by criminally-connected wheelman Jerry (the wonderful Matthew Maher), who dresses down the would-be art thief for his gross incompetence and naivete. J.B., whose goose by now is seemingly cooked, sulks in the back seat while Jerry chuckles at all the mistakes that led his passenger to failure. The perpetually masterful Reichardt drops this moment as an absolute bonbon of viewer catharsis as Jerry verbalizes everything we have been thinking in regard to the privileged and materially comfortable family man.

O’Connor, who had another very good year in the movies, possesses a combination of skill and fortune that continues to work to his great advantage. He has already been directed by several master filmmakers and it feels like even bigger things are on the horizon. I like the risks he takes as J.B., whose self-centeredness is eclipsed by equal measures of middle class idleness and a lack of personal responsibility. O’Connor has an immediate grasp of J.B.’s weaknesses and Reichardt, as usual, fashions a story that keeps stoking our curiosity even as we aren’t entirely certain how much to root for our protagonist.

Why does J.B. steal four abstract paintings made by American artist Arthur Dove from the (fictional) Framingham Museum of Art? Reichardt is most assuredly too good to spell out a single, simple answer. Instead, the filmmaker depicts a series of events deliberately inviting many more questions. At first, I wondered why Reichardt didn’t use Alana Haim’s Terri to more directly challenge the choices of her irresponsible husband. But what is unspoken or unsaid can so often be every bit as powerful as a tense argument or explosive altercation. This is certainly the case regarding the unfair share of emotional and domestic labor assumed by Terri in J.B.’s absence.

By including several essential scenes with sons Carl and Tommy (played by real-life twins Sterling and Jasper Thompson), Reichardt extends her deconstruction of the heist movie to contemplate generational family dynamics. The frustrating and difficult relationship J.B. has with his own father William (Bill Camp) looks to be repeated as he disappoints and alienates his own offspring. As J.B.’s mother, Hope Davis steals each of her scenes. We can instantly recognize the kind of parent whose unconditional love for a child obscures the harsh reality of their failures and shortcomings.

Reichardt uses history by suggestion to perfection, setting the action in 1970, when protests against the Vietnam War saw young and old take to the streets in opposition to the conflict. Throughout the story, the war lurks at the fringes and in the background on television news reports until a climactic scene results in a reversal of J.B.’s fortune that takes away one’s breath for the brilliance of Reichardt’s timing and its hiding-in-plain-sight anamorphosis. Like all of her movies, “The Mastermind” invites repeated viewings to appreciate the care and craftsmanship applied by Reichardt to her always distinctive worlds.

Reach High Plains Reader film critic Greg Carlson at gregcarlson1@gmail.com.

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