New York isn’t just a state of mind. It’s a city. It’s a state. In literature and on film, it’s also a character, a living, breathing character with its own needs, wants, and desires, often unknowable, often indifferent to the inhabitants who’ve called it home for decades, if not centuries.
For Harry Lehman (John Turturro), the lead character and protagonist of writer-director Noah Segan’s latest film, The Only Living Pickpocket in New York, New York City, not just Manhattan, but all the boroughs, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and even Staten Island, count as his home. Maybe not Staten Island. But Harry has marked every borough save one as his hunting ground, riding trains in and out of Manhattan, effortlessly lifting wallets, watches, and jewelry from unaware transit riders, grabbing what he can (cash, not credit cards), and dumping the excess in the nearest trash can.
It’s not a great or even good life for Harry, but it’s the only life he’s had dating back to the last century. A neo-Luddite by accident, not intention, Harry prefers the analog world to the digital one, making him the last of his breed, the last of his era. Other pickpockets still work the subways, of course, but their goals are more sophisticated and far more risky to everyone involved.
At least that’s how Harry and his best friend/fence, Ben (Steve Buscemi) view it: Stick to the tangible, keep it fairly low value, and avoid the legal consequences if and when possible. All it takes, though, is one slip-up and the tables, not to mention the odds, get flipped against Harry’s favor. Breaking into a cherry 1969 muscle car, Harry thinks he’s home free, except he doesn’t realize the owner, Dylan (Will Price), isn’t just a frat-bro with too much cash and not enough fashion sense. He’s connected, as in mob-connected, and he wants a thingamagig Harry inadvertently stole back.
Once their paths cross again (not by Harry’s choice), it’s a race against time to recover the thingamagig (USB with a crypto account key) before Dylan and his goons do something entirely unwholesome to Harry’s bedridden wife, Rosie (Karina Arroyave). Naturally enough, the race against time automatically gives The Only Living Pickpocket in New York the narrative juice it needs to keep it moving from tense scene to tense scene.
Even better, Harry’s mission to recover the USB turns into a travelogue of sorts, with Harry visiting the boroughs to get the next clue or bit of information that will get him closer to his goal. It also always gives Harry a chance to visit his estranged daughter, Kelly (Tatiana Maslany). It goes almost exactly as you’d expect, though it gives us valuable insight into who Harry was and who Harry has become.
The dialogue is also written with admirable simplicity and transparency. The characters talk like actual fathers and daughters, and not how screenwriters think they talk or interact. That same dialogue gives Turturro one of his best roles in years. His Harry is wry, self-deprecating, a little lost sometimes, but also well-meaning, carving out what little life he can for himself and his wife from the world’s second-oldest profession.
Strong supporting turns, especially from the always welcome Buscemi and Giancarlo Esposito as Harry’s former nemesis turned (almost) friend, help to elevate The Only Living Pickpocket iin New York into something truly special, a character study that doubles as a crime drama, a crime drama that also functions as a snapshot in time, a time capsule for a vanishing New York City and the multitudes who are born, live, and die in one of the greatest cities in America, leading not lives of quiet desperation, but lives of quiet contentment.
The Only Living Pickpocket in New York premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.