With The History of Sound already in theaters and Rebuilding and Wake Up Dead Man on the imminent horizon, Josh O’Connor is having an all-time great year, and it continues with The Mastermind, an unconventional thriller—screening at the New York Film Festival ahead of its Oct. 17 release—that leans into his sharp, sad soulfulness.

More than just about any actor of his generation, the British star has a way of conveying complex depths without the need for mannered theatrics or showy histrionics, and in his latest, he exudes a strain of aimless, amoral desolation and desperation as a family man whose decision to embark on a life of crime proves unwise. Saying little but speaking volumes about American disaffection, apathy, self-interest, and foolishness, his performance bolsters this askew

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