{"id":221261,"date":"2025-10-23T22:07:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T22:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/221261\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T22:07:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T22:07:09","slug":"the-mastermind-review-josh-oconnor-and-alana-haim-star-in-a-timely-heist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/221261\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mastermind review \u2014 Josh O\u2019Connor and Alana Haim star in a timely heist"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a topical time to be releasing an art-heist movie, given recent events at the Louvre. If only The Mastermind had been as ballsy and successful as the broad-daylight swiping of \u00a376 million of jewellery from the Paris museum. A heist movie written and directed by Kelly Reichardt, one of the queens of \u201cslow cinema\u201d, already sounds like an oxymoron, but this is laid-back to the point of non-existent. Set in the Seventies and soundtracked by shuffling jazz, it stars Josh O\u2019Connor<\/a> as James Blaine Mooney, an art school dropout who plots to steal paintings by the American modernist Arthur Dove from a museum in Framingham (geddit?), Massachusetts. <\/p>\n

The plan, the execution and the accomplices are all deeply inadequate but rarely funny. This being Reichardt, the creator of First Cow<\/a> and Certain Women<\/a>, white-knuckle thrills were unlikely to be on the menu either, but you would have hoped for something with which to engage beyond a vague hum of disappointment. Reichardt and her fans might argue that there are subtle depths under the lethargy; if so, they are well hidden. <\/p>\n

\u2022 Read more film reviews, guides about what to watch and interviews<\/a><\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the fault of the always-watchable O\u2019Connor \u2014 when it comes to staring into the middle distance he is up there with the best of them \u2014 but Reichardt could have asked him to do something else as well. Yes, the autumnal colour palette is fetching, as are the period fashions \u2014 corduroy suits O\u2019Connor. However, Alana Haim of the band Haim<\/a>, who was such a revelation in Paul Thomas Anderson\u2019s Licorice Pizza<\/a>, is also wasted as James\u2019s wife, Terri, while anti-Vietnam protests provide a half-hearted socio-historical backdrop. If you want a great film with O\u2019Connor as an art thief, try Alice Rohrwacher\u2019s La Chimera<\/a>.
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12A, 110min
In cinemas <\/p>\n

Two-for-one cinema tickets at Everyman<\/p>\n

Times+ members can enjoy two-for-one cinema tickets at Everyman each Wednesday. Visit thetimes.com\/timesplus<\/a> to find out more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a topical time to be releasing an art-heist movie, given recent events at the Louvre. If only…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221262,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[96,2839,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-221261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}