Film Review: The Mastermind

Welcome back to the blog readers. One genre of film that I can be very critical of is heist films, because they have to capture you from the very beginning. One film, though a lot more fast-paced and brutal, that failed to do this is Den of Thieves 2: Pantera (2025). Hearing of this film's existence gave me hope, especially since the film competed for the prestigious Palme d'Or at Cannes back in May. Would I agree that this film was worthy of the prestige and accolades it was getting? Stick around to find out.

The Mastermind was written and directed by Kelly Reichardt. The film stars Josh O'Connor, Alana Haim, Hope Davis, John Magaro, Gaby Hoffmann, and Bill Camp. In the film, set in the 1970s, an art thief who lives a double life as a suburban family man must face the consequences of his actions when his theft of four Arthur Dove paintings ends up backfiring.

Like I mentioned in the introductory paragraph, I had vaguely only heard of this film when I went into seeing it. And it was this week's Mystery Movie at Regal, so I really had little expectations for it since I had no idea what I was getting myself into. But I want to share what a fellow patron of my screening said after the credits finished rolling. "This movie sucked because it was filmed on location in Ohio, and that's why Ohio sucks." I'm paraphrasing, but this film was not great. A solid, yet embellished performance from Josh O'Connor was not enough to save this film from terrible pacing (a theme in 2025) and a story that really does not say anything relevant.

I do want to start this review off by talking about the performance of Josh O'Connor. O'Connor is an actor that has begun rising through the ranks of Hollywood by starring in some larger-scale projects like Challengers (2024), The History of Sound (2025), and the upcoming Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (2025) and Steven Spielberg's untitled 2026 film. And based on what I saw out of him in this film, I think he brings a solid performance to the film that is dearly needed. If he did not have the kind of magnetic charm that he has, I really think I check out of this film pretty early, but I held out hope because I liked seeing this guy on screen as James Mooney. I do think in places he was embellishing a little much, but that is not an issue he created. The actor is only doing the job the director tells him to do, and I understand that.

Before I move on to the negative in terms of what I do not like about this film, I have to give a nod to something else I did like, and that is the music. Rob Mazurek is the man behind the score for this particular film, and I do have to say that the jazz-infused themes he brings to the score are absolutely delightful. I found myself acutely focused on the score when most of the things on screen were happening (and mostly letting me down in the end). The joyous and vibrant score feels like a contradiction to the dreary material that I am seeing on screen, and I honestly liked that contradiction. Hats off to Mazurek, and I hope he gets some kind of recognition for his stellar work.

Now, we get to the negative. Sadly, O'Connor's performance and the music were the only two things I really gravitated towards in this film, and the pacing is probably the biggest sin of them all. Let's face it: 2025 is the year where I have seen some of the worst-paced films I have ever seen, and it seems to be a trend that will not let up. Unfortunately, this is one of those films and it is pretty poor. The job of the film is to tell a story, and I did not feel like I get a sense of the story until halfway through the film. That is the screenplay's fault but I will talk about that in a bit. Nothing emulates that more than a scene that lasts at least ten minutes in which James drives to a barn with his paintings, takes way too much time to take each painting out of its box, climbs up a ladder with each painting, and then opens the box and puts each painting in the box, and then climbs back down the ladder. This was agonizingly long and I slightly considered walking out (not as much as I did for The Alto Knights (2025)).

And finally, before I bore myself to tears by repeating myself, I want to move on to more fruitful endeavors and end this review by talking about the story and the screenplay of this film. One reviewer called this film a contemporary look at an America losing its way, but I did not see that at all. To me, Kelly Reichardt did not tread into more than shallow water in her attempt to tell that story, and I think the story really falls flat for me. It felt dragged out (undeserving of its 110-minute runtime) with not a whole lot of anything to say about America back in the 70s or even now when democracy is being chiseled away. She missed a golden opportunity to say something really relevant and timeless, and I lost a lot of respect for this film for not diving deeper.

In conclusion, The Mastermind fails to deliver a relevant story about an America of yesteryear and wastes a solid performance from one of the up and comers. Thank you all for reading, and for the record, I do not think Ohio sucks.