If you were captivated by Josh O’Connor’s portrayal in the latest Knives Out installment, Wake Up Dead Man, which premiered on Netflix this past weekend and rapidly climbed to the top of the platform’s trending list, then you’ll definitely want to check out The Mastermind on MUBI.

The Mastermind debuted on MUBI on the same Friday that Wake Up Dead Man hit Netflix, showcasing Josh O’Connor in a vastly different role. In Knives Out 3, crafted by Rian Johnson, O’Connor embodies Jud, a young, well-meaning priest eager to forge genuine connections with his congregation. As Jud humorously describes himself in the film, he’s “Young, dumb, and full of Christ.” His character exudes an endearing charm that makes you want to affectionately tease him.

In contrast, The Mastermind, penned and directed by acclaimed indie filmmaker Kelly Reichardt, presents O’Connor in a role that is far from sweet or charming. His character is naive, but in a way that evokes frustration rather than affection. J.B. Mooney, the character he portrays, is essentially a man down on his luck.

The narrative unfolds in 1970, with O’Connor as J.B. Mooney, a middle-class American who faces unemployment but still has a safety net courtesy of his affluent (albeit critical) parents, a devoted wife played by the underutilized Alana Haim, and two children. Instead of seeking new employment to support his family, J.B. opts to fulfill a juvenile dream of orchestrating an art heist.

Using funds borrowed from his mother, J.B. enlists three local misfits to assist in robbing an art museum in Framingham, Massachusetts. He enthusiastically outlines his simplistic plan, imagining himself as the lead in a heist movie: enter the museum, remove the paintings, leave the premises, and make a getaway in a stolen car. The simplicity of the plan borders on absurdity, leading to its almost immediate unraveling.

First, J.B. fails to plan for the fact that his children have a schedule day off school. Luckily, it’s 1970, so he simply gives them some money and sends them off to run around town on their own. Next, his driver bails on him, so it’s up to J.B. to drive the getaway car. The actual stealing of the art is perhaps the least-smoothly executed film heist I’ve ever witnessed. The thieves are clumsy and slow. At one point, the thief named Ronnie (Javion Allen)—a wildcard whom J.B. vouched for—pulls a gun on a school girl in pigtails. When they finally get the art of the door, it takes them an excruciatingly long time to roll down the car window. The entire sequence is absolutely hilarious.

Though J.B. does, technically, manage to pull of the heist, isn’t long before the authorities are on to him. (Ronnie, the guy J.B. said he “put a lot of thought into,” squealed.) In one brilliant, dialogue-less sequence, J.B. tries to stash the art in a safe place and finds himself stranded on a barn loft without a ladder. The only way down? Falling into a pile of hay and animal crap.

For J.B., The Mastermind is just one humiliation after another. It’s all tied together by a perfectly understated-but-hysterical Josh O’Connor performance, portraying a silly man in way over his head. In the end, J.B. loses the paintings, his wife, his kids, his friends, and any last shred of dignity. And he has no one to blame but himself. A mastermind, this man is not.

Though he couldn’t be more different from Jud, J.B. is an equally fun O’Connor character to watch, thanks to the British actor’s keen comedic timing and delivery. It’s been a banner year for O’Connor, who, earlier in 2025, also starred in the critically acclaimed Western drama Rebuilding and the queer period romance, The History of Sound. It’s his busiest year to date, and clearly, his hard work is paying off.