The Only Living Pickpocket in New York

In the sea of large budgeted films along with animated films, Hollywood produces small independent movies that are lower budget, usually well written, directed and acted. When I saw the first trailer of "The Only Living Pickpocket in New York",I thought it had amazing promise mostly since it starred John Turturro who is an incredible actor. Well, what I received was worth the wait.

Harry Lehman (John Turturro) is an aging pickpocket who plies his trade with ever-diminishing returns in a drastically changed New York. Wallets stuffed with cash have been replaced by easily canceled credit cards, and Harry struggles to make ends meet as he cares for his disabled wife, Rosie (Karina Arroyave). When he unwittingly purloins and fences a valuable USB stick, Harry finds himself in a race against time to return the loot or face the rage of a vengeful crime family. Harry's longtime buddy, Ben (Steve Buscemi), a proprietor of the pawn shop Harry 'does business' with helps him as much as he can, however this family, particularly Dylan (Will Price) gives him the ultimate ultimatum. 

Others to round out the cast are Giancarlo Esposito as Detective Warren, Kelvin Han Yee as Frank, Jamie Lee Curtis as Moira, The Boss, Lori Tan Chinn as Gena, Echaka Agba as Annie, a neighbor, Rob Brown as Sammy, an orderly and Victoria Moroles as Eve.

This was directed as a 'fighting the clock' do or die film by Noah Segan ("Scare Package" (segment "M.I.S.T.") '19, "Blood Relatives" '22). This, yet again, is a filmmaker that has gone the route of writer/director while also being an actor. The list gets longer: Clint Eastwood, Ron Howard, George Clooney, Bradley Cooper, etc. Not that the requisite of being an effective director is one where one must be an actor, i.e. Steven Spielberg or Alfred Hitchcock, but it can give a director a leg up of being able to perceive the nuances of character development when they've come from the front of the camera. Even though John Turturro is a consummate actor, it certainly helped to know what kind of subtleties and nuances this character needed to convince the audience of the corner that Turturro's character, Harry was painting himself into. It was also well written by Noah Segan (" Scare Package" (segment "M.I.S.T.") '19, "Blood Relatives" '22) plus a short. It was an interesting premise in that Harry had no idea that he stole something valuable from this crime family when he was merely doing his 'job' as a pickpocket, but soon finds out and the writing was so subtle that Turturro looked as though he was under control while his world was falling apart. I believe this was a combination of the writer's expertise and Turturro's acting. Anyone else surely could've pulled off this role, however, after seeing Tuturro in this role, it would be difficult to envision another actor in the role as Harry, and this also is fine writing.

Not to spoil it, however it does ends bittersweetly, but satisfies the audience by films' end. The writing, directing and especially the acting by Turturro was amazing. Noah Segan will definitely receive more work, and it was truly great to see Tuturro in another film since, unless he's been doing TV, I haven't seen him in a film a bit of time.

Out of 4 Stars: 4                                            Rated: R                                      89mins.