This bumbling art thief manages to capture attention

Josh O’Connor excels in Kelly Reichardt’s sly, gently mocking ‘The Mastermind.’

- ROBERT ABELE

JOSH O'CONNOR portrays a middle-class 1970 suburbanite who finds that stashing stolen works of art is harder than pilfering them in “The Mastermind.”

(Festival de Cannes)

Kelly Reichardt’s watchful cinema is one of the indie world’s most exquisite bounties, a space for pioneers (“Meek’s Cutoff,” “First Cow”), artists (“Showing Up”) and wanderers (“Old Joy,” “Wendy and Lucy”) who command your attention the way an ER waiting room does, lingering tensely.