Masterminds
2016 · Directed by Jared Hess
Original language: English
- action
- comedy
- crime
The story
A night guard at an armored car company in the Southern U.S. organizes one of the biggest bank heists in American history.
What it’s like
Bright, flat daylight and sun-bleached Southern strip-mall palettes give way to fluorescent-lit warehouses, pale beige carpet and cheap office décor, with the camera held in tidy, symmetrical frames that let the absurdity sit in plain view. Director Jared Hess's style is deadpan and wide-eyed rather than slick: long, unhurried takes of people talking in small rooms, a slightly off-kilter score that nudges the gags along, and a sense of heat and humid boredom on every drive between nowhere towns. The vibe is mild, goofy, and faintly melancholy, the kind of easy watch for a lazy weekend afternoon or a background comedy while folding laundry. The story follows a lonely, amiable guard whose bad decisions escalate in slow, sweaty stages, and its people are mostly sweetly hapless, more bungling than menacing. Intensity is low: some mild crude humour and a little peril, with brief, cartoonish moments of gun-threat and a stray bit of violence, but no gore and nothing harrowing. It suits viewers who want a light, quirky comedy with Southern texture and no real dread.
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