The Mastermind (12A)

Josh O’Connor stars as a wannabe criminal who fumbles a small-time art robbery in Kelly Reichardt’s evocation of 1970s suburbia.

James (O’Connor) is an art school dropout and would-be architectural designer with two young sons, married to Terri (Alana Haim). James depends on the social standing of his father Bill (Bill Camp) and is borrowing large sums of money from his patrician mother Sarah (Hope Davis), ostensibly to finance a new project.

But James has something else in mind for the cash. Having established the lax security measures at a local art gallery, he plans to pay two tough guys and a getaway driver to steal four Arthur Dove paintings. But the steps in his grand plan keep wobbling. His two accomplices shortly demonstrate that they’re barely up to the job, and the aftermath becomes the story, from hiding the paintings to going underground.

In The Mastermind, the dreary details of post-heist calamity are as pertinent as the main event. It is this that attracts Reichardt’s observing eye and makes the film so quietly gripping; it is a film that leaves you with something invaluable to gaze upon and reflect.