THE ONLY LIVING PICKPOCKET IN NEW YORK (2026)

While this is not actually Noah Segan's feature directing debut (another film from 2022, Blood Relatives which he also co-stars in, takes that title), it still feels significant as far as a kind of "Here is another Young Major VOICE you should listen to" for this year, not unlike Curry Barker or Kane Parsons. This is not in a lucrative Horror genre spot like those were, but Segan's Only Living Pickpocket in New York is important for showcasing a writer and director who has an almost novelistic way for writing dialog and a natural sense for how to film a weathered character actor-star like John Turturro walking the streets of NYC as a Guy In Trouble.

Sometimes these Guy In Trouble films have a doomed quality (Bad Lieutenant, and I have to think Segan has seen a lot of Ferrara along with the old pros Scorsese and Lee and Cassavetes), or make you bite your fingernails till they bleed (throw a Safdie at the wall), but Segan's work is interesting because at least on the surface it feels less improvisatory than those films, like every comma and punctuation was followed (and why not when you also have two Coen bros hall of famers). 

When Turturro's Harry speaks with someone, like even the Chinese bookie/smuggler downtown who has a fixation on his game show, or that bookie's wife and maybe grandson or whoever, they each have rhythms and patter that are distinctive and it is just fun to hear good actors sometimes delivering very sharp dialog that, and this is key, keeps the story moving with that wit and observation still intact.

Like those other films I mention, Living Pickpocket rests on that edge of Modern Film Noir and a more European art film character study kind of vibe - though I imagine if you double feature this and Tuner from earlier in the summer they would feel complimentary as well (not just because a thumbnail USB with a lot of currency is a key plot point in both, but I digress) - but I think it means something to notice Rian Johnson is an executive producer, and Segan has acted for Johnson in many of his films in small roles. There is a joy to see actors like Turturro and Esposito playing guys who should be genre cliches, but there is still a lot of truth and idiosyncratic things to find in those character types (notice Esposito's veteran detective with his stack of cards that are profiles of perps).

To see them or Buscemi you feel like you are in good hands because *they* also know they have a script that has a lot of conflict and tension but also the kind of intelligence to give us just enough about who these characters are to one another and how they talk around what their scenes are about says alot. And when it comes to Harry and his great love, Arroyave as Rosie who has no dialog but is compelling for how she listens, that too has a sensitivity that is so important. And did I mention this is 88 minutes and while I am tempted to wish this was 5 or even 10 minutes longer it really is exactly the length it needs to be and should be studied in classes as to how you still can convey a ton about motivation and reflection and quandaries in that amount of time?

As much as I want to love all of the film, there are a couple of small faults. One is Price as Dylan, the young dumb-shit who is the one wrong guy Harry lifts from (really it is not even really pick-pocketing, he takes his wallet from his car and which sets all of this in motion).  He is not a bad actor, but it is the problem of someone being a little out of his league among some others who feel more natural in their dramstic scenes. 

It could also be the writing for him as well, or that his role is so repetitive that it feels like you are taken out into another more conventional film where this was more like Hanging Out with the PickPocket on His Bad Day sort of trip that feels more unique.  As much as I praise much of the writing here, and it is nice to see the Special Guest Star in that big black car in the final scene be more subtle than she has been for a long time, it feels slightly over-written (not to where it cuts the brakes on the film, since there is also a beautiful and existential sort of final couple of shots that can't be ignored, just like it is... too much).  And I do question just how much that USB could so easily get that done to it in the final reel.

But if you have seen the trailer or know you like these actors, for Turturro who we so rarely get as a leading man - and Tatiana Maslany, best scene in the movie, like "five minutes and she should get all of the flowers" especially for how important the scene is for Harry in sum - then it is a good to support films like this.  And yes I mean in the theater; you think that a big screen is meant for spectacle, yet what is more of a spectacle that a close-up of John Turturro's eyes scanning a space like a subway car or a backroom at a shady pawn shop?  

Oh, and all five boroughs in this movie. When was the last time you got all 5? Even Queens looks good here. As for Staten Island, it... exists.