Brain Review: Josh O’Connor is really magnetic in the latest film by Kelly Reichardt

Have you ever wandered you in an established art gallery and thought of fixing these precious masterpieces on the wall and getting out of the door, all in broad daylight? This is what the character of Josh O’Connor Cuisine The brain. But that is not the whole story of Kelly Reichardt, with the writer / director based on the kind of art robbery to examine the reasons for such a decision – and follow a family man during flight during social and political upheavals in America.

Located in the Massachusetts of the 70s and vaguely based on the flight of the High Level Worcester Museum, The brain Play such a script with charming realism, a healthy comedy and a rich and attractive score. But its most precious asset is O’Connor, whose magnetic performance is as hilarious as those it moves.

The brain provides for a very comfortable crime.

With a clear pivot in the film center, The brain is essentially a story in two acts: the first implying an artistic robbery frankly left to professional thieves, the second a road trip through American cities, all tainted by the essential but subtle presence of the Vietnam War.

As for the robbery, Reichardt keeps things characterically minimalist and also far from Ocean 11 flamboyance as possible. We are talking about surveillance technology, limited security personnel and small town cops during their lunch break. There are no fracture scenes, no lasers to avoid, no bait and switching. Instead of a heterogeneous team of specialists firing “a last work”, it is a trio of ordinary guys led by a middle -class family man and a JB unemployment carpenter (O’Connor). With his chic and fresh wife Terri (Alana Haim) and his adorable young sons (Jasper and Sterling Thompson), he displays the Fictive Fradingham Museum in order to steal four works by the American modernist Arthur Dove.

Everything in this relatively comfortable crime is soft and openly fall, from Rob Mazurek’s sweet jazz partition to the range of Amy Roth costume sweaters and cardigans, homemade pillowcases to transport stolen works. JB uses paper cards to inform its co-conspirators and distributes work flashes by hand of the works they need to fly. The director of photography Christopher Blauvelt captures each scene with a nostalgic and low contrast light at the classic aesthetic of the 70s film The selectedAnd the production design of Anthony Gasparro is a crunchy suburban landscape of American modernist architecture – and all the woodwork that accompanies it.

These flash cards.
Credit: Mastermind Movie Inc. All rights reserved

That being said, there are bright edges once reality strikes. Createdly convinced that he can achieve such a daring crime with great preparation, JB implements his faith in his nervous collaborators (Eli Gelb, Cole Doman and Javion Allen), leading to a group execution which is both stressful and comical to watch. Reichardt deploys a Slapstick comedy with sparing but effectively. At times, The brain Even leaving in the territory of Buster Keaton, in particular in one of the best scenes in the film involving O’Connor falsitance with a barn scale and the valiant objective of loft storage. Reader, I frozen. In fact, O’Connor’s ability to channel an impassive look worthy of Keaton continues throughout the film, one of the many subtle skills History of sound The actor Wields.

Josh O’Connor is a master of impassive comedy The brain.

Eli Gelb, Javion Allen and Josh O’Connor in “The Mastermind”.
Credit: Mastermind Movie Inc. All rights reserved

However The brain Precedes the technology of a few decades, the O’Connor JB looks like the personification of the emoticon of Guy Shrug deceived, ensuring the people around him (in particular his exasperated parents, played by Hope Davis and Bill Camp) that everything will work. Despite the title of the film, JB is far from being a criminal brain, despite one or two moments of Frank Abagnale Jr. However, Reichardt is less interested in following the flashy finesse of a master thief, more in the series of life decisions than JB takes to try to provide financial stability to his family (and yes, a feeling of personal accomplishment for himself).

As much as The brain Give to O’Connor with whom to play, he unfortunately does not confer the same opportunity to his co-star, Alana Haim, whose JB’s wife seems bizarrely restricted. Aside from a brief period of camaraderie when planning the robbery, Terre has little to do, but looks and beats to her clumsy husband, although Haim finds nuances and expression miraculously in his allocated silence. JB literally begs his wife to “say something” and express his feelings. And while women on the screen should not always be required to return the tables to express their minds, Terra deserves more characterization than a awakening has thrown off screen.

Alana Haim in “The Mastermind”.
Credit: Mastermind Movie Inc. All rights reserved

Or The brain do Extaking a truly wonderful character is in JB’s old friend, Fred, an absolute culmination of the film played by John Magaro who is jubilant to have his “blown spirit” by the extraordinary actions of his friend. THE Past The actor brings a brilliant feeling of lightness and warmth to the film (and JB himself) when it is necessary, compensated by the bristling disdain released by the partner of Fred Maude (Gaby Hoffmann). We are not aware of every detail of the relationship between these three, Reichardt leaving the public to fill more than a few shortcomings for themselves. And it’s half the magic of The brain.

Kelly Reichardt leaves the public to reconstruct The brain.

America of the era of the Vietnam War is omnipresent.
Credit: Mastermind Movie Inc. All rights reserved

Showing no intention to link The brain In a neat arc, Reichardt does not overexpire his film. The relationships between the characters emerge slowly through dialogue; The historical context is not pushed into the throat. But the omnipresence of the Vietnam War is impossible to miss.

The advent of televised broadcasting sees JB’s father stuck to the new nights while our protagonist transpires on the details of his native city robbery. The anti-war demonstrations and demonstrations point to the media and the streets on different scales. This crucial moment of political turbulence in America is developed once JB has hit the road, where he notices a naval officer on the levry bus shipped and sees young student activists castigated by older nationalists. The social and cultural changes of the 1970s infiltrated the central account through deactivated comments; A conversation between JB and Fred mentions Canadian municipalities full of “Draft Dodgers, Radical Feminists, Dope Fiends – Nice people”.

It is Reichardt’s ability to put on such a temporary historical context through comedy and gender robbery that makes The brain Such a unique and endearing film. And it is the magnetic performance of O’Connor that makes the film a masterpiece of subtlety and impassive humor. There are no archetypes of turning films here, only crunchy leaves, modernist art and clumsy realism. It is a combination that is worth the stolen.

The brain Hits Cinemas on October 17 after presenting at the New York Film Festival and the BFI London Film Festival.