The highest-paying jobs often require degrees and qualifications but don’t necessarily involve having to physically get your hands dirty. Those who are forced to apply maximum effort every day to bring home a paycheck are rarely adequately compensated for their hard work, but they need to be even more skilled in order to make a living. While stealing from others can’t be called honest, there is a talent required that, the more impressive it is, the better the potential payoff. The Only Living Pickpocket in New York is an ode to one of the oldest professions in the world, a nostalgic time capsule of one man who hasn’t let a changing world change him.
Harry (John Turturro) has a routine. He scans his marks, makes his lifts, and then heads straight to the pawn shop owned by his friend Ben (Steve Buscemi). At night, he pays his neighbor to keep an ear out for his wife Rosie (Karina Arroyave), who is non-communicative and requires a great degree of care. His luck changes when he lifts a wallet belonging to Dylan (Will Price), a hothead with mob connections, and sells a drive that he believes to be worthless but for which Dylan is willing to kill to get back. Desperate to save his wife even if his odds of survival are bleak, Harry pulls out all the stops to get the drive back and ensure that there’s a plan in place to take care of Rosie when he’s gone.
This is a film that feels like it’s out of the same era as its protagonist’s heyday. Though he lays out multiple iPhones on Ben’s counter, he’s extremely lo-fi. He walks everywhere or takes the subway, has a landline, and has never heard of Etsy. He enjoys a friendly relationship with a detective (Giancarlo Esposito) who pulls out a playing card deck of mugshots of criminals Harry says he hasn’t seen in decades. He’s prepared for any situation and even ready to give tips to other pickpockets he sees about how they should have upper coat pockets to avoid having to travel too far with their spoils. It’s a wonder to watch him work, seemingly effortless yet clearly so calculated.
Turturro, seen recently as a similarly outdated and diligent worker in Severance and as a cutthroat trainer in The Cut, feels like he was made for this role. He’s cool and smooth but not too self-congratulatory, and he’s charming but doesn’t try too hard to be liked. He clearly cares about his wife and also has a genuine friendship with Ben and another colleague, Eve (Victoria Moroles). He’s a believable relic of another time who has made it this far because he knows his game works. Buscemi portrays Ben with a similar outlook but is more jaded about the world, while Price is full of all the wrong kinds of energy that instill legitimate fear in someone who seemingly hasn’t ever flown quite this close to the sun.
Writer-director Noah Segan has assembled a top-notch cast that also includes Tatiana Maslany and Jamie Lee Curtis to populate a film that feels as if it’s been frozen in time. Harry travels all over New York City, which really does become its own character, asking people for directions to the nearest subway or borough. There’s comfort and familiarity to this film that still persists even as Harry has to make pivot and go against his always reliable plan. This is a stylized love letter to New York City and the one person any resident or visitor would never want to meet but whose story here feels as true and faithful to the famous city as any other.
Movie Rating: 8/10
The Only Living Pickpocket in New York premieres in the Premieres section at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.
