The term cosy crime describes the reassuring, cardigan-swaddled whodunnits that currently dominate both page and screen, but it carries different connotations for Kelly Reichardt, director of the new heist movie The Mastermind, as it surely must for anyone from a law enforcement family. Reichardt's mother was an undercover narcotics agent, her father a crime scene detective. When the couple split up, she also gained an FBI agent as a stepfather.
Kelly Reichardt has been called one of America's greatest filmmakers, and also one of its quietest. But her latest, The Mastermind, centered on an art heist that goes off the rails, is probably her loudest movie yet and definitely her biggest budget to date.
The writer-director has spent the last three-plus decades turning out idiosyncratic independent films that portray their characters with such intimacy that it feels like the screen is offering a temporary gift of telepathy. Her work is known for its deliberate pace as well as its tight scale, though it should be just as acclaimed for its capacity to undermine expectations.