At first Reichardt's heist movie is a fascinating anti-heist movie heist movie. Her slow cinema style that was so engaging in First Cow (for example) works well in the first half of the Mastermind, deconstructing what we expect in a heist film. But by the second act I was taken out of the film that seemed to really struggle with what it was trying to do.
I appreciated the everyday-ness of how she sets up the heist in the opening of the film. There was a lot of just obviousness to it, a lack of extraorindariness to what we are used to seeing as the exact opposite. To make it feel so work-a-day just felt quite remarkable. As the plot started to fall apart it was both tragic and comic. The more characters commented on how our "hero" didn't "think this through", the more it became clear just how poorly planned this was. As a film genre, this is usually where we see how brilliantly the plan comes together and this was the stark contrast to that.
But by the end Reichart's attention to minuscule detail starts to loose its appeal and takes away from the power of the story. She pulls the story back around with what is a beautifully ironic ending and a sad commentary on futility of progress. But by then I had lost some of my passion for where this was going.
I found O'Connor to be strong, along with a few of the cameos who appear here. But some of the rest of the cast were too weak to bring what was needed to keep this story engaging.
The Mastermind
Starring: Josh O'Connor, Alana Haim, Hope Davis, John Magaro, Gaby Hoffmann, Bill Camp, Matthew Maher
Writer/Director: Kelly Reichardt
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