{"id":55667,"date":"2026-10-28T15:00:56","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T19:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=55667"},"modified":"2026-10-28T00:42:02","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T04:42:02","slug":"the-only-living-pickpocket-in-new-york-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2026\/10\/28\/the-only-living-pickpocket-in-new-york-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"The Only Living Pickpocket in New York [2026]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>In The Only Living Pickpocket in New York, an aging small-time criminal steals the wrong item, forcing a journey to retrieve it. John Turturro leads Noah Segan’s precise, quietly powerful character drama in one of his best performances.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Only Living Pickpocket in New York is the sort of film that seems simple and unencumbered by trying to be more than it is as the viewer follows two days of John\u00a0<\/a>Turturro\u2019<\/a>s<\/span>\u00a0Harry as he deals with the ramifications of boosting the wrong wallet.\u00a0<\/span>Heck, maybe it is; that\u2019s a good thing. Writer-director Noah Segan<\/a>\u2019s precise, particular execution gives his tale weight, led by an always fantastic John Turturro.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Although clearly set, and needed to be, in the modern era, The Only Living Pickpocket is reminiscent of, and reverent toward, the 70s, both in the decade’s living memory and its films. Specifically, New York. Textured. Lived in. Segan, in his second film after the vampire comedy Blood Relatives<\/a>, writes a love letter to a city that has passed, but without feeling sentimental or chinzy.\u00a0 Where the subway lines and deep avenues tell the stories of the deep lines on a well-lived man\u2019s face. This is the world of Turturro<\/a> as the titular character, Steve Buscemi<\/a> as his friend and fencer Ben, and the other characters that live within their insular, increasingly left-behind circle, including Kelvin Han Yee\u2019s secondary fencer Frank and even Giancarlo Esposito<\/a>, a detective Harry clearly has a long history of frenemies with (I adored their handful of scenes; such chemistry).\u00a0<\/span>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This old-school outlook is lived in with another strong turn from the always-reliable John Turturro<\/a>, of countless Coen Brothers<\/a> films or more popular works like The Batman<\/a> and \u201cgotta pay the rent\u201d Transformers<\/a> films. Of course, Turturro was born in 1957, so he was barely out of his 20s when 1980 rolled around, but that\u2019s beside the point. <\/span>Turturro carries a quiet weariness in an incredible, internal performance (as an actor, Turturro can go big and showy, and still wow; but his quiet sadness hits hard). His life of easy petty crime seems to have done alright financially over time, but it’s led him into a never-ending circle, sliding toward a bottom. Yet, it\u2019s a comfortable life, it seems, moving through his circles, caring for his comatose wife. He knows the world has moved on, but he hangs on his own terms. Yes, but one always teeters and often leaves loved ones in the wake, staying a few steps ahead. But the complicated, digital modern world is about to tread on his simple, analog, impeccably polished shoes.<\/span><\/p>\n

On his rounds, Harry lifts a duffle bag from a 20-something douchebag. A bag that contains a wallet, a gun, a buttload of cash, and a weird, unmarked card. It\u2019s that card, the key to a massive crypto wallet (or however that works; here I\u2019m with Turturro; I don\u2019t get it and I don\u2019t want to). The douchebag turns out to be connected: a crime boss’s grandson (Jamie Lee Curtis<\/a>!). Under threat of harm to everyone he knows and loves, Henry has to retrace his steps and where it might have gone, taking him across all five boroughs to recover the key. Backed by Gary Lionni\u2019s fantastic and jazzy score, he revisits his past and the long life he’s lived, for good or for loss, including an understated but history-brimming scene with Tatiana Maslany<\/a>. But nothing is overstated; that\u2019s the key to unlocking the strength of The Only Living Pickpocket in New York.<\/span>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Segan has a history as a solid character actor, often a point man for his pal Rian Johnson<\/a> (appearing in all of his films), and that does wonders for finding grounded, lived-in performances with his cast. Of course, they are all amazing, well-trod performers, but that doesn\u2019t lessen the easy power he gets from them; you feel the depth of their lives. And I\u2019m particularly impressed by his standing castmate of New York City. It\u2019s clich\u00e9 to call The City a character, but it\u2019s apt. The muted color\u00a0palette, texture, and darkness give the city something special, like\u00a0Scorsese<\/a> and De Palma\u2019s New York stories,<\/span>\u00a0Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, or Hi, Mom<\/a>. There\u2019s an intense love of the bygone era. Sure, there was the dirt and nastiness of the grindhouse; I love my 42nd Street Larry Cohen<\/a>, Abel Ferrara<\/a>, and Henenlotter<\/a> (he\u2019s the 80s, but I stand by it); but that\u2019s the joy of the city: it\u2019s a full life. I\u2019m sure current NYC is as vibrant, but in this modern society of sanded-off edges for copy-paste sterility across metropolitan cityscapes, it\u2019s wonderful to celebrate this city and its past of cinema and cosmopolitanism.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Only Living Pickpocket in New York is a true film, grounded in its world and cinematography. John Turturro delivers one of his best performances in a lifetime of fantastic roles, and Segan keeps a precise, even hand in his direction. It’s a remarkable film of truth and nuance; of lived lives and histories. It has a discernible texture in style and city, a feeling rarely found in modern films. Recommended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In The Only Living Pickpocket in New York, an aging small-time criminal steals the wrong item, forcing a journey to retrieve it. John Turturro leads Noah Segan’s precise, quietly powerful character drama in one of his best performances.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[240,302],"class_list":["post-55667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-crime","tag-drama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55667"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55692,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55667\/revisions\/55692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}