A new heist drama movie is available to watch right now

Several real-life heists inspired the film.

Set in the US in 1970, the movie follows James Blaine 'J.B.' Mooney (O'Connor - Challengers, The Crown), an unemployed family man and amateur art lover who sets out to rob his local art museum.

With the building cased and his accomplices recruited, J.B. believes he has an airtight plan. But does he in reality?

We'd be wary about recommending The Mastermind to anyone looking for the next Heat or Ocean's Eleven.

After all, the crime drama is the latest from the excellent filmmaker Kelly Reichardt (First Cow, Meek's Cutoff and Night Moves - all well worth seeking out), whose work is known for its slower, almost glacial pace.

She's a director who prefers to capture her characters undertaking ordinary, everyday tasks, as opposed to providing audiences with scenes of big action and spectacle.

The Mastermind is a crime drama on paper, with Reichardt stating that its story was inspired by several real-life heists.

In fact, many have drawn comparisons between her movie and the robbery of the Louvre earlier this month.

That said, The Mastermind is really more of a character study of J.B., with the casting of man-of-the-moment O'Connor as the lead belying the fact that his character is an odd duck.

J.B. has a loving and wealthy family. He is educated and has lots of opportunities to be successful through legal means.

Yet, he still feels driven to commit the central art heist, perhaps to boost his ego or as an act of rebellion.

That said, as Reichardt captures in the film's museum heist early on - a clumsy affair that only succeeds because the building's security is so poor - and in the subsequent long and often static scenes focused on J.B., the movie's title is ironic.

The lead character is not the criminal mastermind he thinks he is. Plus, the lack of thought and consideration he has for others becomes increasingly clear before Reichardt ends the story on a truly brilliant joke, one that makes any monotony in the preceding 100 minutes or so nearly completely worth it.

In summation, The Mastermind is less for fans of Den of Thieves and more for the arthouse crowd, who will probably get a kick out of O'Connor looking cool as he blows up his life, and moody jazz music plays in the background.

And yet, the arthouse heads may also leave wishing that Reichardt had made her take on a crime drama a touch grittier. Even when mobsters show up at around the halfway point of The Mastermind, they are oddly polite.

The Mastermind is in cinemas now.