Vulture first reviewed The Mastermind when it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on May 23, 2025 . We are republishing the review now that it’s playing at the New York Film Festival.

The Mastermind is a movie about a man who finally reaches the limits of his charm. Most of us hit that wall early, if we were ever lucky enough to coast on the quality at all, but James Blaine Mooney — a father, husband, and aspiring art thief — has managed to reach adulthood relatively unchallenged on his bullshit. How is that possible? Mostly it’s because he looks like Josh O’Connor at his most appealing, which is to say unshaven, in need of a shower , and alarmingly irresistible. There’s this look that O’Connor has been perfecting over the arc of his recent dirtbag canon and that he deploys in th

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