Kelly Reichardt's most accessible film is also her finest by some distance. Set in 1970 "The Mastermind" has both the look and the sound, (a superb jazz-tinged score from Rob Mazurek), of the films of that period, ("Five Easy Pieces" comes to mind), as gormless would-be thief J.B. Mooney, (another terrific Josh O'Connor performance), plans and executes a heist of four paintings from his local Museum of Art.
Unfortunately planning and what to do next don't really figure in J.B.'s universe and, this being a Kelly Reichardt film, the heist itself fades into the background as we get to know J.B., a thirty something man who's clearly in arrested development and again, being a Reichardt film, it takes its time reaching what may seem like an anti-climax and yet I found it a joy from start to finish, unlike other Reichardt films which I found interminable.
As has so often been the case recently O'Connor carries it; his shaggy dog amiability makes him excellent company even if he does have loser tattooed on his forehead and the film is full of lovely cameos from the likes of Hope Davis and Bill Camp, (his parents), and John Magaro and Gaby Hoffmann, (the counter-culture couple he briefly hangs out with after going on the run), and as O'Connor and the film amble from place to place it perfectly evokes those seventies road movies that brightened our cinema-going back in the day. Not much happens and it's certainly not a suspense film but in its sad/funny way it's a real charmer. More like this please, Kelly.
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