The director Kelly Reichardt encourages stillness. Her style—long takes and low stakes, often punctuated by unhurried silences—forces viewers to slow down, to immerse themselves in the atmosphere being created on-screen. Her movies can resemble landscape paintings, like those by the artist Arthur Dove. His work is featured in The Mastermind, her latest film, which mirrors the tableaus its protagonist covets: textured, abstract studies of reality that reveal their true potency over time.
James Blaine—or “J. B.”—Mooney (played by Josh O’Connor) isn’t the patient type, however. He’s an unemployed carpenter who’s grown restless amid his suburban comforts. Set in 1970 in Massachusetts, the film follows J. B. as he hatches a plan to steal four of Dove’s paintings from the (fictional) Framingham Museum of Art.
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