Kelly Reichardt doesn’t make “heist films.” At least, not in the Hollywood sense of slick montages, laser grids, or fast-talking con artists. Her new feature, The Mastermind, is the opposite—quiet, unadorned, and stubbornly human. Mubi has now unveiled the first official trailer, and it’s a fascinating reminder of why Reichardt’s cinema still feels singular in 2025.
Set in a sleepy Massachusetts town in 1970, the film follows JB Mooney (Josh O’Connor), an out-of-work carpenter who stumbles into amateur art thievery. It sounds absurd, almost like the setup for a Coen brothers farce. But Reichardt has no interest in punchlines. In the trailer, O’Connor drifts through silence, hesitation, and half-formed plans before he and two accomplices carry out a museum robbery in broad daylight. Four paintings leave the walls. Their lives collapse in the aftermath.
O’Connor—fresh off a string of festival favorites—slips into Mooney with a kind of vacant intensity. He doesn’t play a mastermind so much as a man playing pretend, fumbling with the notion of control. Around him, the ensemble is stacked with Reichardt regulars and indie heavy-hitters: Alain Haim, Gabby Hoffman, John Magaro, Hope Davis, and Bill Camp. Everyone looks like they could have wandered out of a grocery store line in 1973, which is exactly the point.
Reichardt has built her career on turning small gestures into seismic waves (Old Joy, Certain Women, First Cow). Here, she takes the bones of a crime thriller and strips it bare—leaving stillness, moral ambiguity, and the haunting sound of footsteps in an empty gallery. Watching the trailer, you almost forget this is technically a “heist” picture at all.
The Mastermind premiered earlier this year at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, where it drew praise for its measured pacing and O’Connor’s subdued performance. Next stop: the New York Film Festival, a natural home for Reichardt, whose work has long been a NYFF staple. After the festival circuit, Mubi will release the film in select U.S. theaters on October 17, 2025.
It’s a bold slot—October is usually packed with prestige rollouts—but Reichardt thrives on the margins. She doesn’t need awards bait packaging. She needs a room, a projector, and the patience of an audience willing to lean in. And judging from this trailer, leaning in will be rewarded.
What Stands Out About The Mastermind
Josh O’Connor’s subdued magnetism
His performance looks less like a “star turn” and more like a man fading into wallpaper—exactly what Reichardt films thrive on.
The anti-heist aesthetic
No glamour, no explosions, just a creeping unraveling of lives after the paintings come off the wall.
Reichardt’s cultural excavation
She’s digging into 1970s America not for nostalgia but for the tension between ordinary lives and desperate choices.
Festival pedigree matters
After Cannes and NYFF, the film already carries the credibility of critical spaces that don’t hand out applause easily.
October 17 release via Mubi
Theatrical first, then streaming. Reichardt on the big screen is the only way to feel that silence properly.
