On the outside, JB Mooney (Josh O’Connor) has a pretty good life. He’s got a nice wife (Alana Haim) and a couple of cute kids. They live in a nice house with his parents (Bill Camp and Hope Davis). Honestly, from the inside, that looks pretty good too. But he’s not happy. He’s a white, middle-class, man. He’s bored. He’s also, as his father the judge likes to remind him, unemployed.
Buy The MastermindHe decides to become an art thief. In an early scene, we see him wandering around a museum with his family, then he slips his hands inside a case and sticks some little sculpture in his pocket. The security there is lax, to put it mildly. One security guard is seen napping in his chair; the other lackadaisically guards the front door. He gets away with it and figures he could probably steal some real art.
But JB is no Danny Ocean, and this isn’t The Thomas Crown Affair. He has a half-baked plan that feels like something he cribbed from some old movie rather than something actually thought through. He enlists a couple of friends to help him but insists he shall not be involved in the actual heist. For he has often gone to that museum, and his face would be familiar (but also that helps alleviate some of his risk – and as we’ll see, he is a deeply selfish man).
On the day of the heist, he seems to have forgotten that his kids don’t have school that day. He calls his wife, but she can’t take them; she’s at work. So he gives them some money, lets them run off to the bowling alley, and warns them not to eat any junk food. “Ill-prepared” does not even begin to define this heist.
At the last minute, one of the friends backs out, and he has to become the driver. It goes about as well as such a half-thought-out thing can go. The thieves put pantyhose over their faces but don’t seem to realize that this will only cause them to stand out. When a teenager walks in on them, one of the thieves brandishes a gun and forces her under a bench. They make it out of the museum with four paintings in ill-fitted bags, but not before having to tussle with the front-door guard. They run to the stolen station wagon only to realize the trunk door doesn’t open and the window mechanism is very slow.
Art was stolen, and with the boys paid off, JB doesn’t seem to have a plan as to what to do with the goods. He takes them out at his house and lines them up just to take a look at them. That night, he sneaks out and drives to some old barn. Before leaving, he puts the paintings inside a wooden box that seems specially made for them. At the barn, he moves a ladder into place so that he can carry the paintings to a loft space filled with hay. He takes each of the paintings out and carries them up. At this point, I yelled at my TV, wondering why he didn’t just carry the box up. The paintings would get ruined sitting out in some hay. Then he carries the box up and puts the paintings back inside. I guess it was too heavy to get up the ladder full of the paintings. I laughed.
Josh O’Connor is wonderful as JB. He has that shaggy-dog handsomeness and easy charm. He just kind of lets things happen to him. Like Forrest Gump but with much less success. He never seems to think for one second about how the things he’s about to do will affect those around him. There’s one scene where some gangster-looking dudes stop his car and put them into theirs, leaving his son there to fend for himself. When he comes back, the only thing he says to the boy is for him to keep these events to himself.
It is set in the 1970s, something we only really know because there are news reports about the Vietnam War. And the fashion. And the cars. All of which feel thoroughly authentic. It is a Kelly Reichardt film after all and she has made a career creating that kind of feel. This is a film that feels very lived in. Like we’re just getting a slice of this guy’s life, and nothing more.
It is a film full of lots of wonderful little moments. I’m not sure if they add up to anything big or important. I’m not sure if they have to. I was just happy to live in this world for a little while.
Mubi presents The Mastermind with a nice looking Blu-ray transfer. The only extra is a video essay.
