Kelly Reichardt's new film *The Mastermind*, starring Josh O'Connor as a carpenter and family man who turns art thief, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and will be released by Mubi. The film follows O'Connor's character, J.B., as he plots a heist inspired by a real 1972 robbery of the Worcester Art Museum, targeting paintings by American modernist Arthur Dove. The movie blends suspense, humor, and meticulous visual storytelling, with Reichardt drawing on the aesthetic of 1970s America and the work of photographers Stephen Shore and William Eggleston.
The film matters because it continues Reichardt's exploration of characters adrift in the American landscape, paralleling her earlier works *Showing Up* and *Wendy and Lucy*. By centering on an art heist and the protagonist's ambiguous relationship with the artworks he steals, *The Mastermind* offers a meditation on ambition, purpose, and the value of art. The choice of Arthur Dove's abstract landscapes as the target underscores the film's themes, while the real-world Worcester heist provides a historical anchor that adds depth to this fictional crime story.