"In her 1970 essay "On the Morning After the Sixties," Joan Didion described her disillusionment with the idea that political protest could "affect man's fate in the slightest." It's an opinion James Blaine "J.B." Mooney might share, if he were paying attention. He's the lead character and hapless art thief in director Kelly Reichardt's new film The Mastermind, set in 1970."
"That insulation dissolves over time, and The Mastermind 's political backdrop becomes a key aspect of its mise-en-scène. Reactions to the Vietnam War and the Kent State shootings flicker through café windows, televisions, and in overheard conversations. These notes build to a cacophony in the film's final scene. J.B., like anyone, can only avoid the outside world for so long."
"The Mastermind balances that rising political noise with a strikingly tranquil visual world. The film's earthy, faded setting-shot on 16mm-unfolds in reddish orange and gold, leaves shifting beneath the fall light. The viewer sees newspapers, sprawling ranch homes, and extras in sport coats and polyester dresses. Streets are lined with Pepsi signs and waterbed advertisements; peace activists with sideburns occasionally crowd the sidewalks. The Mastermind's subtle attention to detail, somehow both muted and precise, feels quintessentially Reichardt."
J.B. Mooney is a dubiously unemployed carpenter and hapless art thief who robs a small New England art museum in 1970. He displays political apathy, insulated from draft concerns and much of the era's turmoil, but that insulation gradually dissolves. The film integrates reactions to the Vietnam War and the Kent State shootings through café windows, televisions, and overheard conversations, building to a final-scene cacophony. Visuals are earthy and tranquil, shot on 16mm in reddish orange and gold with leaves, newspapers, ranch homes, period signage, and subtle, muted details. The contrast between external unrest and subdued mise-en-scène shapes the film's atmosphere.
Read at Portland Mercury
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