Kelly Reichardt's THE MASTERMIND (2025)

Sad to see Morbs having started most of the previous Reichardt threads.

Anyway, loved this. And I still love having no idea why Reichardt picks her subjects, how the screenplays appear on paper (the dialogue seems to nondescript to stand out), how she achieves the effects that she does, but it's so good. For a few reasons, it's an interesting companion to One Battle After Another.

And Chicagoan Rob Mazurek (first heard him on Jim O'Rourke's Halfway to a Threeway) does a really nice score here.

He does! Was intending to look him up, having watched this barely an hour ago.

Great film again. Reichardt is seemingly incapable of leaving me displeased.

The film basically got no release in South Florida last week and I'm pissed.

For a few reasons, it's an interesting companion to One Battle After Another.

Husband and I saw them both on the same day last week, and I agree with this. They make a good Alana-Haim-in-a-small-role double bill. I'm not sure I loved this as much as other people did. I know that Reichardt was deliberately trying to make it slow and detailed to the point of being boring, and in my case I think she went a little too far. I was ready for it to be over before it was. Having said that, once it was all over I was very satisfied with how it all turned out.

I was very frustrated by this film. It seemed to be missing something. That said, I did like the ending.

tbh, I didn't think this film was slow at all, and I was expecting that after someone at Film Comment said it was (I can't remember who, but it was possibly Molly Haskell). The same person used the barn scene as an example, but even that scene didn't play slow for me. Maybe I'm just very used to her pacing (not to mention other works that make her films seem torrential), but this felt comparatively brisk and tight.

Anyway, I liked this a lot and it may be my favorite American film of the year. It truly is an anti-heist film where the old clichés are avoided, and not in a way that seems forced or calculated - it plays as if this is simply how she views the idea of a heist, which means it has none of the mythical aspects that have been bestowed on to organized criminals, just the opposite. Even better is how she places everything within the context of global politics, something that initially appears in the background and eventually envelopes everyone. It's both funny and chilling how the film ends - funny as a twist of fate, but chilling (and astute) in terms of the implications, how no one escapes what's happening in the world even if they're only thinking of themselves with little care of anyone else.

O'Connor's on a helluva roll, eh?

https://www.filmcomment.com/blog/time-has-told-me/

The film basically got no release in South Florida last week and I'm pissed.

Not much of a release in Chicago, either. Only playing at two theaters downtown. Last week it was in Evanston, too, and I considered seeing it after work, but it didn't happen and now it's gone.

I didn't like this much. It seemed to be a homage to the early '70s "anti-hero" genre of films focussing on flawed, disaffected, morally ambiguous lead and often inarticulate characters. The filmography also seems to recreate a 70s look. However, unlike someone like Eliot Gould who might have played a similar role in the 70s, Josh O'Connor just isn't charismatic enough to carry it off.

I would not call him an anti-hero (defining "anti-hero" as someone who performs heroic acts through a non-traditional path) - there's absolutely nothing heroic about him. From the film's convincing perspective, an organized heist like this is a thoroughly selfish endeavor, so much that his final desperate acts play like a logical conclusion.

And yes, O'Connor is having a hell of a year. Surprisingly, this may be the first time I've seen him in anything even though I've been aware of his work.

I would like a prequel/sequel/companion movie depicting the Toronto that's mentioned by John Magaro's character

Josh O'Connor just isn't charismatic enough to carry it off.

I haven't shared enough of my fantasies, I see.

First one of hers that I didn't love since Night moves. But I liked it. It felt less surprising than the last few, more like a remix of some of her favorite tropes, though set in a setting she has never depicted before. More like a consolidation. It made me realize how enormously impressive her filmography has become at this point, though. She really is a major auteur.

And yeah, the Mazurek soundtrack was awesome.

I've been assigning Old Joy in class; it's amazing to what degree her methods have grown more sophisticated and her subject range has broadened.

Did Showing Up ever get discussed here? Loved that one.

Me too.

She's def one of those directors whose every film I look forward to, not least because she is a major auteur and I know that whatever she does, even if it's not my favorite, will be recognizably hers (in a good way).

Loved Old Joy and Wendy & Lucy but I think those are the only ones I've seen

Those are good ones for sure!

I know she can't get Michelle Williams in every one of her movies, but I wish she could.

oh man, watch First Cow and Certain Women, the latter of which I was lukewarm about but opened up for me a couple months.

*a couple months ago.

okay, I'll try to track them down

Showing Up is the only movie of hers I’ve seen so far; liked it a great deal.

I think about her films often, especially Old Joy and Certain Women. There's something about the way she shoots bodies, and faces in particular - how much we reveal through skin tone, the way stories are stored in wrinkles and facial tics.

Yeah, I feel like characters from those two (maybe most of her films) live on forever in my head, and it's mostly not about clearly-remembered dialogue. Some days merely thinking about the, er, "horse girl" or perhaps any part of the final third (?) of Old Joy could alone just about make me weep!

I just realized that one reason I was connecting this with One Battle while watching is that both films have a nerve-wracking score that kicks in whenever the main character gets extra stressed. My friend sitting next to me mimed blowing a trumpet whenever a scene was getting tense and it kicked in.

Knew nothing about this going in--the title and the director and the fact that it was playing at a local rep (as Rob Lowe would say on Parks and Rec) literally didn't click in until today, and I was able to catch the second-last showing. (Hadn't opened up this thread.)

I liked it for a stretch, after James first went on the road and visited Maude and Fred, but mostly I was...restless?...no, I was bored. Especially during that nighttime scene when he was hiding the paintings; I drifted off there, so not sure if that lasted two minutes or more like ten. I think I'm running about 50% with Kelly Reichardt. Glad someone pointed out the affinities with One Battle After Another--maybe not enough for the two-magician-movies thread, but they're there.

Would have liked more of Alana Haim’s role in both films.

I've only seen her before in Licorice Pizza so in my mind she is trapped in the 70's.

I would not call him an anti-hero (defining "anti-hero" as someone who performs heroic acts through a non-traditional path) - there's absolutely nothing heroic about him.

I used “anti-hero” simply to mean a protagonist who is the focus of the audience’s attention but motivated by cynicism, selfishness, alienation etc. As I said, one major problem I had with this film is that I didn’t feel the main actor had sufficient charisma to sustain interest in him as a flawed and selfish character (though I note subsequent comments).

I thought he looked so 70s Bruce Springsteen in this in the latter stages of the film. Should have had him in the biopic instead.

They should've rewritten it as a prequel to Deliver Me from Nowhere. After months of hiding from the authorities, he calls his wife, "baby...I was born to run..." Cut to later that night, writing "Born to Run."

I've said this before, but: I really loved Kelly Reichardt's Showing Up, it was an interesting view of a small arts community in Portland, filmed at the now defunct Oregon College of Art and Craft. I like that nothing much happened, it was just a week in the life of a frustrated artist in a community of artists who was dealing with her family and a job and an upcoming show and with her relationship with a frenemy/landlord/artist friend.

It seemed like all of the events in the film gently lead to her greater understanding of her family and to an opening up of her relationship with her friend. Both the artwork by Cynthia Lahti and the performance by Michelle Williams were great.

I haven't seen The Mastermind yet. I don't think Reichardt sees film and story like most other directors

The farmhouse scene isn't too long, it's too DARK. I had to close every blind and squint.

Alana Haim is a nothing of a screen presence, eh?

It doesn't measure up to Showing Up or First Cow but still another solid mood piece; she's good at landscape and how it shapes people. birdistheword OTM upthread. I'm still figuring out if the score's a distraction or a necessary complement to the low key antics.

The scene at John Magaro and Gaby Hoffman's was hilariously understated ("How 'bout an egg?"). I laughed hard after Hoffman said, "Let's not talk about it now cuz I find it kinda upsetting."

I saw that "First Cow" (among other/of all films) is getting re-released in theaters as part of a Films Covid Forgot series, granting second chances to some movies that barely got a run before things shut down. Maybe Sean Baker is behind it? Anyway, "First Cow" was OK, not sure it's going to garner much more support than it first did, esp. minus the passive star power of "Showing Up" and "The Mastermind."

My film critics group made sure it wasn't forgotten: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_Film_Critics_Circle_Awards_2020

For sure, it's better than fucking "Nomadland." I'm afraid to see "Hamnet" because I really didn't like that one, or "The Eternals" (natch), and just saw that she is driving the "Buffy" reboot (snooze).

Watched this a second time now that Mubi is streaming it. Hadn't remembered laughing much the first time but often found the endless displays of ineptitude and societal disdain hilarious today!

Also thinking I should refresh my memory of Night Moves (one of her few films I've definitely seen just the one time) as I seem to recall a vaguely similar final act. Or least some fairly extensive rubbing of noses in the isolating consequences of dubious life choices, etc?!? Presumably less scope for hitherto-underappreciated hilarity than with 'mere' art theft however lol.

Loved this. What a creative depiction of white privilege.

We did the O’Connor double feature today with this and Wake Up Dead Man. Boy he’s good. Just totally different tones and notes in the two films. I liked The Mastermind, not in my top Reichardt tier but I dug the scuzzy low-key 1970 Rust Belt vibe. (I was a Rust Belt ‘70s kid, it all felt familiar.) I liked the soundtrack, felt a little like her version of a cool Soderbergh thing except of course no one in the movie is cool at all. Kind of like it was the soundtrack in his head, what he imagined he was, this guy on the make.

That's sort of how I took it, almost an ironic "heist" score.

Kind of intriguing how the period setting is relatively inconsequential to the story itself but more pertinent to many of the film's "America on the precipice/J.B on (several) peripheries" themes.

There are few films I look forward to as much as Reichardt's, just such a strong and distinctive (and distinctly American) independent voice. I love how dedicated she is to telling these stories rather than abandoning them in favor of a soulless Hollywood buck.

This one didn't figure for top tier Reichardt a day after viewing, but watch it creep up on you.

I feel her films fluctuate across and around a thin line of excellence.

Yeah one thing that struck me is how good she is at fleshing out lives lived in the margins — economically, socially and emotionally. It’s consistent for her across settings of time and place and across whatever genres she engages with. People barely getting by, or trying to get by and failing, often carrying some kinds of unarticulated but clearly felt wounds. Her movies are clear-eyed about self-destructive or self-abnegating behavior, but not judgmental about it.

For me the film moves from good to great in the last 45 minutes with Fred (John Magaro) and Maude (Gaby Hoffmann).

That's something this film did really well, all the subtle contrasts between J.B. and people on the margins (of the movie and in life). He lives a relatively (as far as we know) comfortable or stable life, a coddled loser that dreams of a sort of milquetoast radical action. Meanwhile the people around him are marching, or fighting in Vietnam, or even dropping out of society in favor of farms or communes. He's a stay-at-home/unemployed art school dropout that schemes of stealing art, an ill-formed plan (unwittingly funded by his parents) that plays out as well as one might expect, while others rob banks at gunpoint. When he gets in trouble he just asks his mom or wife for more money, or drops his dad's name, while others go to jail or get beat by cops or both (as he eventually learns). His mugging of that old lady seems less out of desperation than it does entitlement. Of course his escape plan was going to work, why wouldn't it?

One of my favorites little details is that intricately crafted wooden case he builds just to carefully cart around the stolen art. He has the quiet luxury of avoiding real work, despite his skills, in favor of living out what amounts to a fantasy.

The absurdity of the crate made even more clear by the labored bit of needing to empty it and haul everything up to the hay loft just to put it all back in again.

I liked the bifurcation of the film into the quasi-comic heist and the subsequent and increasingly sadder and lonelier road trip. The road trip parts were maybe my favorite — Fred and Maude, for sure, but also the desultory hotels/boarding houses that follow. Kind of low-key Edward Hopper vibes.

This is an absolutely horrible movie to watch with someone who is extremely bored by it.

Wait what?

This is an absolutely horrible movie to watch with someone who is extremely bored by it.

― Jordan s/t (Jordan),

It's happened many times in my cinema life, hence why I watch 90% of movies alone.

^this

I don't want to misrepresent or misquote him, but I'm pretty certain based on the overwhelming evidence that Morbius would have said exactly the same.

That circumstance very rarely exists in my life, lol. The tiniest of complaints.

The score was too interesting, I was continually distracted by the nuances of Chad Taylor's ride cymbal beat.

I heard similar problems frequently plagued the Music Box in Chicago in recent years, where ignoramuses audibly expressed their scorn or displeasure at a movie they didn't get, and it got so bad they had to make a pre-show announcement not to do that. In NYC, people like that just get yelled at to STFU and they generally do.

I usually love Reichardt's pacing but even I thought Is she trying to troll us with this one...

I loved this. the ending was perfect -- you can be a completely self-centered asshole, choose not to participate in the vietnam protest for ex, and still find yourself under the boot

agree the haim girl is a pretty boring actress though. she's been in some great films and rarely makes much of an impression

I'm still a little sore at a24 for dropping her despite their supposed commitment to putting out great art even if that comes at a cost - consistently one of the best american directors going imo! (I didn't think this one was up there with her best but there was still a lot to enjoy here)

xxp It is indeed a perfect ending. Appropriately enough, the The Mastermind's ending is actually quoting Joseph Losey's Mr. Klein, in which the central character is an amoral art dealer who takes advantage of Jewish French citizens selling their artwork in order to raise money to leave their Nazi-occupied country.

Also, did Reichardt actually have a deal with A24? I didn't realize that was still a thing with filmmakers, even when they clearly have most of their films going through a particular studio. Just to use a recent example, Richard Linklater had to go to Sony to distribute Blue Moon but Netflix has been bankrolling so much of his recent work including Nouvelle Vague.

Had very similar thoughts to Paul Schrader:

MASTERMIND AND MARTY SUPREME WOULD MAKE A GOOD DOUBLE BILL. The same 45 single played at different speeds, one at 33 rpm, the other at 78 rpm. Two period picaresque tales of seemingly intelligent American young men who stumble from one hapless misdeed to the next. Kelly Reinhardt's film is all restraint, Josh Safdie's all exess. Both are excellent.

that is a great quote

Armond White is on occasion right.

Also, did Reichardt actually have a deal with A24?

that was my impression from the q&a that she did after the screening i caught last year. didn't really get into the details but iirc she mentioned having to scramble for backing after her deal with them fell thru and that “it sucked” or something along those lines. but fwiw i have no idea how any of this stuff works.

ah got it. It sounds like they were originally going to finance this movie and then for some reason backed out. In terms of deals like that falling through (i.e. financing for one particular film), it happens all the time. I don't think she had a multi-film deal with them, that kind of deal is rarely done anymore for a lot of economic reasons (at least not at this level).

to be clear, it can seem that way simply because a studio that's released a filmmaker's work while likely bankroll the next one if the last one did fine, especially if they all got along and the risk is low.

*will likely bankroll

ah interesting. i just keep thinking about how a24 keep putting out ari aster movies that the general population seems to strongly dislike but didn't put out one of her more potentially commercial films. maybe they cant go without the coveted john waters contrarian year end nod…

Up until his money-losing Eddington, Aster's movies were very profitable for A24, so I'm not surprised they did so many. Eddington could be the last one though, we'll see - the box office gross was apparently half of its budget.

ah, makes sense

no shade to ari or jw btw. if john waters put anything i ever did at the top of a list, i’d die happy(er)

I think Beau Is Afraid was a flop too? But yeah, before that, he was one of their biggest money-makers, so it makes sense they give him a couple of chances at doing something different. Too bad he's so bad at it.

I stand corrected, that did indeed lose money. Looking at the numbers, his first two films with them cost less than $10 million to make and made enormous profits. Then the next two were about three or four times the cost and making much less than that (but more than $10 million). I don't know if they'll produce his next one, but if it's something much cheaper - again in the sub-$10 million range - I could see them giving him another shot.

Yeah he has a metier he does well with a certain scope, then he decided to make Big Statements and both times, blah. (And saw both of said flops in the theater and lemme tell ya, I love John Waters but I don't have to always agree with him.)

yeah, I still haven't watched either yet... partially because almost everyone on earth except john waters seems to really dislike them

For me Beau was a slog and I’ve tried twice with Eddington but not made it past 40 minutes. Really liked the title film of this thread tho!