Kelly Reichardt’s new film, The Mastermind, strips the art heist genre of its cinematic glamour, rooting it instead in the banality of everyday life. No red lasers or James Bond-esque intrigue here—just a group of misfit youths in early 1970s Framingham, Massachusetts, attempting to steal Arthur Dove paintings by outwitting a sleepy security guard. As JB (Josh O’Connor) and his friends’ simple plan unravels, Reichardt shifts focus from the heist itself to its aftermath: the disintegration, escape, and ultimate decay.
Reichardt is known for subverting American history’s myths—Meek’s Cutoff (2011) dismantled the male hero archetype, while First Cow (2019) upended the capitalist success story. The Mastermind sets its sights on Nixon-era America, spotlighting the conservative shift in small towns amid post-“golden age” cultural investments. Filmed not in an actual museum but at I.M. Pei’s modernist Cleo Rogers Memorial Library, the film captures the era’s architectural optimism. Yet, this aesthetic hopefulness contrasts sharply with society’s shifting values: JB’s father, unable to grasp “why these drawings matter,” embodies the period’s distance from abstract art and progressive ideas.
Centered on Arthur Dove’s works like Tree Forms (1932) or Willow Tree (1937), this heist story paints a broader portrait of emptiness. JB, once an art student with big dreams, is now trapped in suburbia’s dull routine. Reichardt places him not in the solitude of a forest but in a far more perilous realm: the silent, betrayal-laced machinery of societal norms. As friends turn their backs, state pressure mounts, and the free-spirited ‘60s fade entirely, JB finds his escape growing increasingly pathetic and hopeless.
The Mastermind screened at the New York Film Festival from September 27 to October 23 and will hit theaters on October 17. Reichardt’s lens doesn’t chase the art heist but the spiritual bankruptcy of an era.
Apartment No: 26 Note: Reichardt’s film reminds us that more devastating than stealing art from walls is the story of people severed from society’s values.
