I love a good New York City movie, especially when the filmmaker gets everything right about the city I adore.
That’s certainly the case with Noah Segan’s second film as writer-director, The Only Living Pickpocket in New York. It also offers actor John Turturro possibly the best role of his career as Harry Lehman, the titular pickpocket who ends up grabbing the bag of the wrong person, a young hoodlum named Dylan (Will Price), who is connected with the mob. When Dylan learns where Harry lives, Harry’s bedridden wife is held hostage while Harry is sent on a trip across New York’s five boroughs to retrieve something of Dylan’s that Harry had already pawned.
The movie also stars a few actors who have previously worked with Turturro in earlier films (many classics!), most notably Steve Buscemi and Giancarlo Esposito, but also Tatiana Maslany, who also appears with Turturro in Tom McCarthy’s upcoming film, A Statement, which will also be released by Sony Pictures Classics.
The Only Living Pickpocket in New York is a terrific exploration of how New York City has changed over the past few decades and how its older inhabitants like Harry (and me, in fact) have to contend with those changes and all the things being introduced by the younger generations.
It was great having Noah Segan on the Weekend Warrior Show to talk about making the movie, casting Turturro, getting the likes of Buscemi and Esposito on board, and how he was able to film such an expansive New York City movie on an indie budget. My favorite part of this interview is when Segan mentions giving Turturro’s character “a really serious schlep,” as he does in this movie, but I enjoyed the entire interview, and hopefully, you will, too.
The Only Living Pickpocket in New York opens in New York (of course) and L.A. on Friday, October 23, then it will expand to more cities nationwide on October 30. Look for my interview with Mr. John Tuturro, probably next week.