"Ever since The Asphalt Jungle, John Huston's 1950 film about a jewel robbery, audiences and filmmakers have loved heist movies. You get the precise laying out of the plan, the robbery itself, the roaring getaway and the moment that things go wrong - there's always a snafu. A good heist movie offers the exacting pleasures of both the crime - and the plot - unfolding like clockwork."
"Set in 1970s Massachusetts, and inspired by an art theft back then, The Mastermind centers on James Blaine "J.B." Mooney, a suburban family guy played by Josh O'Connor, who you'll know as the young, awkward, not very likable Prince Charles on The Crown. Quiet and hard to read behind his scruffy beard, J.B. is an unemployed cabinet maker who exudes an air of unearned superiority."
The Mastermind is a 1970s-set heist film about James Blaine "J.B." Mooney, an unemployed cabinet maker who plans a museum art theft. J.B. is portrayed as a suburban family man who is distant from his wife, dependent on his indulgent mother, and contemptuous of his upwardly demanding judge father. The burglary succeeds, but possession of the paintings drags J.B. into a dangerous world of police pursuit, organized crime, and fugitive life. The film contrasts bland suburban ennui with chaotic consequences, includes a comedic, desolate visit to hippie friends, and uses Rob Mazurek's jazz score to both heighten and mock J.B.'s predicament.
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