The Mastermind (2025)
Directed by Kelly Reichardt
In a sedate Massachusetts suburb circa 1970, unemployed family man and amateur art thief J.B. Mooney sets out on his first heist. With the museum cased and accomplices recruited, he has an airtight plan. Or so he thinks.
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34 films that influenced The Mastermind
What critics say influenced The Mastermind
This isn’t even the gritty desperation of “Heat.”
There’s been people comparing this film to Heat in terms of intensity compared to the rest of her minimalistic filmography…
For O’Connor, it’s a turn that resembles his sublime performance as tomb-raider Arthur in La Chimera…
…who brings some of the same qualities as his turn in La Chimera. Like Arthur from that film, J.B. is a scruffy art stealer with pensive looks…
O’Connor, playing a not-so-dissimilar character from his archaeologist-turned-graverobber in Alice Rohrwacher’s La Chimera…
Josh O’Connor (Challengers, La Chimera)…
J.B Mooney (Josh O'Connor, "Challengers," "La Chimera")…
The second woman-directed film to compete in Cannes starring Josh O’Connor as a ratty and wayward art thief—take note that Alice Rohrwacher was immediately on-site at the film’s premiere to shower Reichardt with applause as soon as the lights came on…
Director
Joel Coen
Critics invoke Coen by name, and compare The Mastermind to 1 of Coen’s films.
Themes
On Coen, rather than any one film
Although the premise evokes the golden age of The Coen Brothers…
Although the premise evokes the golden age of The Coen Brothers and their money-hungry n’er-do-wells…
The Mastermind reminded me the most of the Coen brothers Inside Llewyn Davis (2013).
On Altman, rather than any one film
…exuding a poignant, dark, Robert Altman–esque sensibility…
…channels some of Elliott Gould vibes from Robert Altman's films…
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On Coen, rather than any one film
Although the premise evokes the golden age of The Coen Brothers…
Although the premise evokes the golden age of The Coen Brothers and their money-hungry n’er-do-wells…
…with a little more of the comedic energy (culminating in a lilting sadness) found in First Cow…
…containing the same type of quiet, hypnotic power as First Cow…
…and a stronger hook than First Cow…
But where First Cow and Showing Up offer sympathetic portraits of artists striving for personal expression despite adverse material conditions, Reichardt’s script here focuses on the (attempted) exploitation of others’ expression for material gain.
…but with a little more of the comedic energy (culminating in a lilting sadness) found in First Cow…
Coming to us from writer/director Kelly Reichardt, whose name you may remember from such films as "First Cow," "Night Moves," and "Wendy and Lucy,"…
This is Reichardt in Night Moves mode…
This is Reichardt in Night Moves mode, but with a little more of the comedic energy…
Reichardt’s work has ranged from emotionally wrenching minimalism (Wendy & Lucy) to a real-deal thriller with bombs and murders (Night Moves).
While it feels closest in genre to her 2013 thriller Night Moves…
Coming to us from writer/director Kelly Reichardt, whose name you may remember from such films as "First Cow," "Night Moves," and "Wendy and Lucy,"…
…or capitalism in Wendy and Lucy and Night Moves…
She seemed to lose perspective in her last film, Showing Up, which pitched an artist’s everyday frustrations as Herculean struggles.
…the exploration of the hold that art can have on an individual who just isn’t satisfied in Showing Up…
…more urgency than Showing Up…
But where First Cow and Showing Up offer sympathetic portraits of artists striving for personal expression despite adverse material conditions, Reichardt’s script here focuses on the (attempted) exploitation of others’ expression for material gain.
Having seen two of her films previously, Certain Women and Showing Up…
Directed by the acclaimed Kelly Reichardt (Certain Women, 2016; Showing Up, 2022)…
It has more humour than Wendy and Lucy…
Where the images in films like Wendy and Lucy and Meek’s Cutoff teem with the possibility of what lies just off screen or under the surface, here they more narrowly illustrate the progression of the script.
Coming to us from writer/director Kelly Reichardt, whose name you may remember from such films as "First Cow," "Night Moves," and "Wendy and Lucy,"…
…or capitalism in Wendy and Lucy and Night Moves…
I’ll confess that I loved Reichardt’s “Wendy and Lucy” (2008), which reduced me to tears at the Denver Film Festival.
…sus grandes colaboraciones con Michelle Williams iniciando con «Wendy and Lucy» que compitió en Un Certain Regard de Cannes…
…depicting lonely people living on the margins of society (Certain Women, Old Joy)…
As in Reichardt’s second feature Old Joy, dreary news reports hiss like static in the background, conjuring ambient dread.
…a setting shared by Wendy and Lucy, First Cow, Old Joy, and Showing Up, amongst others…
Where the images in films like Wendy and Lucy and Meek’s Cutoff teem with the possibility of what lies just off screen or under the surface, here they more narrowly illustrate the progression of the script.
…the genre revisionism of Meek’s Cutoff…
I can only muster up so much enthusiasm for this and “Meek’s Cutoff” (2010), “Showing Up” (2022) and most of her other works.
…whether that be manifest destiny in the likes of Meek’s Cutoff and First Cow…
In a filmography that includes “Meek’s Cutoff,” “Certain Women,” and “First Cow,”…
A director who once described her masterful “Meek’s Cutoff” as “A Western from the perspective of the woman who pours John Wayne’s coffee,”…
Reichardt’s knack for depicting lonely people living on the margins of society (Certain Women…
Directed by the acclaimed Kelly Reichardt (Certain Women, 2016; Showing Up, 2022)…
Having seen two of her films previously, Certain Women and Showing Up…
In a filmography that includes “Meek’s Cutoff,” “Certain Women,” and “First Cow,”…
…la directora de 'Certain Women'…
…shot by Christopher Blauvelt (her regular DoP since Certain Women)…
This isn’t “Ocean’s Eleven” with its swagger and precisely choreographed cons.
…if you are expecting “Ocean’s Eleven” (2001), literally readjust to the opposite…
Director
Robert Bresson
Critics invoke Bresson by name, and compare The Mastermind to 2 of Bresson’s films.
Visuals
On Bresson, rather than any one film
…some Bressonian self-awareness…
Dexterously (and shown in close-ups a’la Pickpocket, a surprisingly apt reference for the film as a whole)…
…his 1974 film Lancelot du Lac is the best cure for insomnia I’ve ever found…
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Reichardt has specifically mentioned the films of Jean-Pierre Melville as an influence, and it's easy to see what she's getting at: I think of how something like Le Samouraï functions by creating a tension between the charismatic cool of Alain Delon and the fundamental hollowness of his character…
…the 1970 arthouse classic, The Conformist, came to mind…