The Mastermind

12A

The Framingham Museum of Art, Massachusetts, is the site of a pleasant visit by the Mooney family. While wife Terri (Haim, Licorice Pizza) and the kids look at the works, J.B. (O’Connor, God’s Own Country, SFF 2017; Challengers) cases the joint. Finding some significant lapses in the diligence of the museum security, J.B. starts scheming. Identifying the works to nab is a simple matter, but this seemingly middle-class suburban dad has much greater difficulty in assembling a team to pull off the robbery. As he plots his criminal endeavour, anti-Vietnam War protests grow in intensity all around.

Reichardt is ever an astute and insightful chronicler of pockets of American life, going from the contemporary, as in Showing Up and Night Moves (SFF 2014), back to frontier times, as in Meek’s Cutoff (SFF 2011) and First Cow. Here, she details an era in which the very notion of America felt in flux; where rebellion was in the air, and the suburban dream was on the brink of collapse. The Mastermind is a timely, entertaining and vital addition to her brilliant body of work.