Kelly Reichardt is one of the most fascinating American directors over the past three decades.
As anyone who has followed her career can tell you from her 1994 debut 'River of Grass' right through to 2019's 'First Cow' and 2022's 'Showing Up,' she's ploughed her own furrow in indie cinema.
And while other talents have been lured away from indie film and have dipped their toes in formulaic studio fare with mixed results, she has remained resolutely indie.
Her ninth feature 'The Mastermind' is a typical Reichardt movie.
Loosely inspired by real life events, it is a throwback to classic low level crime films.
Josh O'Connor plays James Blaine Mooney, an unemployed carpenter and father of two boys who is married to Alana Haim's Terri and who regularly visits a local art museum with his family.
Using his children as cover, JB is actually scouting out the gallery for possible opportunities to rob paintings and even nicks a figurine from one cabinet.
Borrowing money from his parents Hope Davis' Sara and Bill Camp's Judge William Mooney under the pretence that he has landed a possible architecture gig, he plans a heist with Eli Gelb's Guy Hickey and Cole Dorman's Larry Duffy in his basement.
Conscious that museum staff will know his face all too well because of his frequent visits, JB asks Larry and Guy to carry out the robbery.
Needless to say, the theft doesn't go smoothly, with Javion Allen's Ronnie Gibson replacing one of the team at the last minute.
While JB and his associates get away with the paintings, the police inevitably come to his door as the heist attracts media coverage.
And while he is momentarily able to throw them off the scent using his father's name, the attention placed his marriage to Terri under great strain.
What follows is a classic 'crime doesn't pay' narrative, with JB desperately trying to pull the wool over people's eyes and attempting to stay a few steps ahead of the authorities.
This being a Reichardt film, the story unfolds at a deliberate pace and recalls low level crime cinema like Ulu Grosbard's petty thief drama 'Straight Time' and Jean Pierre Melville's works.
Josh O'Connor is terrific as JB, a privileged son who thinks he is much clever than he actually is.
Haim, Davis, Camp, Gelb, Dorman and Allen are perfect too, gelling effectively with him.
John Magaro and Gaby Hoffman also delightfully surface as old art school friend of JB's and his wife in a film where the pacing feels just right and the director allows her cast to just breathe in their roles.
One scene where O'Connor and Hoffman hover around the porch as JB in ill fitting clothes waits for Magaro's Fred to drive him into town is just a masterclass in subtle acting.
Nothing is said but their body language tells you everything you need to know.
It's the kind of scene makes you thankful that filmmakers like Reichardt exist and are able to make their presence felt in independent film.
('The Mastermind' was released in UK and Irish cinemas on October 24, 2025
Winner of Best Foreign Language film at the Oscars, Walter Salles' 'I'm Still Here' is a stirring dramatisation of a real life tragic story.
Set during the dictatorship that ruled Brazil in the late 1960s and the early 1970s, Salles' film focuses on the family of Guilherme Silveira's Marcelo Rubens Paiva, drawing from his 2015 memoir of the same name.
Oscar nominated Fernanda Torres is Eunice Paiva, mother to Marcelo and his sisters and wife to Selton Mello's left wing Congressman Rubens Paiva.
Juggling kids with political activism, they fret about their eldest Valentina Herszage's Vera's ability to attract the military junta's attention and dispatch her off instead to London with friends.
As the family soaks up the sun, adopt a street dog and enjoy the cine film letter that Vera sends from England, there is an undercurrent of imminent danger.
That manifests itself first in the arrest of Rubens and then Eunice and Kuiza Kosovski's middle daughter Eliana.
Imprisoned and subjected to relentless interrogation, the mother and daughter are released but Rubens doesn't return.
What follows is a brilliant balancing act, with Salles mixing the family dra with an increasingly political tale about the injustice treatment of Brazil's disappeared.
In many ways, it feels like a kindred film to Alfonso Cuaron's childhood tale 'Roma' which also mixed the personal with the political.
But it is also a powerful celebration of Eunice Paiva, both as a mother and as an activist who used her pain to champion indigenous rights.
Torres turns in a committed performance as Eunice - building the audience's admiration for her character's resilience and courage.
Mello, Herszage, Kosovski, Silveira, Barbara Luz as Nalu, Cora Mora as Maria and Fernanda Montenegra, Maria Manoella, Marjorie Estiano, Antonio Saboia, Gabriela Carneiro da Cunha ans Olivia Torres as grown up or older versions of the characters create a convincing family unit.
But it is also expertly paced by Salles and his film editor Alfonso Goncalves while Adrian Tejilo's cinematography is mesmerising - brilliantly recreating grainy film stocks of the 1970s on 35mm.
'I'm Still Here' shows after 34 years Salles is still on top of his game with a film that counts among his best works in a really accomplished career.
('I'm Still Here' was released in UK and Irish cinemas on February 21, 2025)
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