Kelly Reichardt’s The Mastermind is a slow-burner of a heist movie that calls to mind the likes of Bresson and Melville in a distinctively American drama that takes place in 1970s Massachusetts and follows Josh O’Connor’s JB, an unemployed carpenter who takes up art thieving and looks to get into the business in a way that’s quietly doomed to failure. It feels like a French crime drama as much as a uniquely 70s American film – slow moving, uniquely so by Kelly Reichardt standards.

Anyone who’s seen any Reichardt film before will know what you’re getting here: a meditative deconstruction of an entire genre. Its jazzy opening is a quiet piece about a character who has it all already, sans the job, and is looking for that thrill in his life that isn’t there. We later learn that he had rich

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