52 Films by Women Vol 9. 34. The Mastermind (Director: Kelly Reichardt)
Pictured : Art graduate J.B. Mooney ( Josh O'Connor ) cases the Framingham Museum of Art in writer-director Kelly Reichardt 's 1970-set American crime drama, ' The Mastermind '. Still courtesy of Mubi. What use is an art degree if you are not driven to create? This is a question partly answered by writer-director Kelly Reichardt’s 1970-set film, The Mastermind . Artists are by their nature divergent personalities with a reflex for expression who question society and our relationship to others. In the narrative arts, they explore questions of morality, confronting divergence that is destructive in nature. Narrative artists are less concerned with ‘good verses evil’ than societal benefit verses narcissism. However, a creative urge is also narcissistic, venerating the self. Against that is the belief that art can foster curiosity about others. By contrast, narcissists are only curious – nay, paranoid – about how others perceive them. Reichardt’s protagonist, art graduate...