Movie Review: The Mastermind

 

Michael's Movie Grade: A

A wonderful deconstruction of a heist film.  

This movie's plot may revolve around an art heist, but that doesn't mean it is an Oceans 11 type movie. For one thing no one expects Kelly Reichardt to direct a movie that is anywhere close to action packed. This film unfolds at the same slow and leisurely pace that most of her work does. Because of this it forces you to have to pay attention. If you let your attention drift too much, you are not going to get much out of this movie. However, if you give yourself completely over to the film, you may find yourself getting wrapped up into the story and characters. This is even with the fact that the story and characters are also a part of what differentiate this movie from your typical heist movie. The story is not concerned much with the action of the heist itself. In fact, it is more concerned with the aftermath and the effect that this simple crime gone wrong has on our main character. The character himself differs from typical stars of this type of film as despite the title he is not a mastermind. He is not a complete idiot either though. Rather he is a fairly average man who is completely out of his depth and bit off more than he can chew. Yet this is what made this movie feel more relatable and real to me. While the main characters of typical heist films may be fun to watch, they are often the type of people we would never meet in real life, while the main character of this film is someone we might simply say hi to on the street. 

What also however becomes clear about this character is that he is kind of a directionless loser. There is not great plan behind these crimes. Despite the high profile of the crimes, the reason for committing them is largely petty. He shows no knowledge of our appreciation for the art he steals and simply picks the works based on what he saw on an art professor's wall in college. He looks over what are much more popular and priceless paintings for these specific paintings that he simply assumes are the best because of where he has seen them. This also reflects his ideology or lack thereof. The movie brilliantly uses an early 1970's backdrop with protests almost always in the background. He never acknowledges these protests or comments on them, showing that he truly has no knowledge or understanding of the world around him. This again shows us the pettiness and the pointlessness of his actions. As this movie progresses it turns his lack of any sort of ideology or conviction against him in some truly poignant and thought-provoking ways that cause us to look inwardly at ourselves in relation to the world around us. Yet at the same time the movie sympathizes with him to an extent because it knows there is more of him in us than we are often willing to admit. 

A truly great and thought-provoking film that deconstructs a popular genre to turn it into something more powerful and profound.