By Dan Skip Allen

Film festivals can be a good source of news and buzz about a new movie. The people who go see films there come out positively or negatively about a particular movie. In the case of “The Only Living Pickpocket In New York” there was a lot of good news and buzz about it. Mainly because of the terrific performance from leading actor John Turturro, who is primarily known as a great supporting player. Word was that he gives one of the best performances of the year in this film. After watching it myself, I would have to concur. He is fantastic in this movie. That’s a good thing because I’ve loved him for years.

Harry Lehman (John Turturro) is, as the title suggests, a pickpocket in New York City. He sees things in a way nobody else sees them. That allows him to be great at what he does, which is a small time thief. After his day is over collecting his ill gotten gains, he goes to a pawn shop in the city owned and run by his good friend Ben (Steve Buscemi). The man also has a daughter Eve (Victoria Moroles), whom Harry is friendly with. When he scopes out a young punk with a nice muscle car, he sees an easy mark. He steals a bag full of stuff, half of it he doesn’t know what it is. One of the items is a USB stick, which he sells to his buddy at the pawn shop. Little did he know this seamlessly useless piece of metal would turn out to be the Baines of his existence. As a man named Will Price (Dylan Diamond) comes looking for the USB stick. 

This movie has a good story at the forefront of it. Once again, a macguffin is at the center of said story like so many others in the past. The USB stick causes all the drama in the story to unfold. At first, it seems like a quite innocent piece of tech until what’s on it is finally revealed. Turturro ‘s character is given an ultimatum. Get the USB stick back by 4 pm that same day or something bad will happen to his comatose wife, who this man takes care of in his time away from being a pickpocket. It’s harder than he thinks as he has to go to multiple places looking for the item in question. The young man and his crew are more dangerous than Turturro ‘s character originally thought. 

This film was written/directed by Noah Segan and has a stacked cast of very famous actors in it. Segan convinced a handful of familiar faces to take small roles like Tatiana Maslany as Kelly, the estranged daughter of the Turturro character. They have a pretty heated argument on her front steps when the Turturro character comes to visit her. Giancarlo Esposito plays New Detective Allen Warren, who the Turturro character calls on for help with trying to figure out where the USB stick might be located after it wasn’t at his buddies’ pawn shop anymore. Jamie Lee Curtis plays the mother of the young punk played by Diamond. She has a smug better than though attitude about Turturro ‘s character and stands by her jerk son. These are just a few of the actors in this cast, and they all do solid work for Segan on set and in front of the camera.

The Oscar buzz around Turturro’s performance is very well founded. He gives a very nuanced performance.  He’s doing a lot of good work with his eyes. Looking around at various situations. The script’s dialogue lets him use it in a way where he says small things that mean a lot in the context of the story. Turturro is a master at using his New York accent, and his hands to good use to bring this character to life. Throw in his knee-length Black and White Tweed coat, and Turturro creates one of the most original characters of his career or this year, to be honest. This is a fantastic performance by Turturro, and he definitely deserves Academy Award consideration. With Sony Pictures Classics behind him, hopefully, he’ll get the nomination four or so months from now. He’s overdue.

As a Boston guy, I don’t usually like to give props to New York, but this film deserves that. The five boroughs of New York City deserve their just due. Turturro ‘s character does a lot of walking with city scapes in the background. Vistas of the Big Apple are shown throughout this movie. Add to that there are also a number of scenes set on city trains and train stations. Segan and the cinematographer Sam Levy have made a film that is a love letter to New York City. Usually, Spike Lee has the title of being the master of New York regarding his movies, but Segan has taken that mantle and ran with it with this exceptional film. I’m man enough to give credit where credit is due, and Segan and Levy deserve the credit for this amazing looking movie.

“The Only Living Pickpocket In New York “ has a vibe of “Uncut Gems,” but it has a more deliberate pacing than that film has. The pacing in this movie allows the story to breathe and the characters to be fleshed out more. The story needed to be developed as it went along, and the further along it went more and more, which was revealed about the antagonist and the macguffin he was wanting back. The cast in this movie are all terrific and compliment Turturro in every way they can. The cinematography makes New York City another great character in this story. This is definitely one of the best performances of the year. Hopefully, Turturro gets what he’s deserved for years now that much long-awaited Oscar nomination. 

🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 ½ stars