Have you ever wanted to watch a thriller with no urgency? If yes, look no further!
Now, don’t take the no urgency comment as a negative, because it’s not. Well, for the most part. It annoyed me for a few moments throughout the film, but it was a nice change of pace for a movie that uses NYC as a main character. It feels like a few times a decade we get a movie with this beautiful city as a character, most recently with Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest, but this time around it feels different.
This movie is about living. And boy oh boy does Harry (Turturro) live. He’s doing something very illegal and immoral as a living, but he needs to do it. It’s all he knows how to do. What an absolute rush being a pickpocket must be. Since I hate wallets, I actually wouldn’t mind if I was one of his victims. I haven’t used one in many years but back in the day I was stuffing those fake, leather folded pockets full of every card and piece of paper my fingers ever touched. Now, if I had Harry to teach me how to run my own pockets, I might have had a better back at the age of 34. That’s honestly one of the coolest parts of this movie, basically learning how to pickpocket. It treats it as a tool that everyone should have and romanticizes crime to a degree that doesn’t feel like a bad thing.
I’ve touched on how the pace of this movie runs, or walks, but that’s not the only impression I took from this story. Because even with its turtle pace, there was still no rest for the wicked. I found the way it handles aging very poignant. It’s an emotional movie that doesn’t cheap out on feeling hopeless or trying to reconnect with family. You might be reading the last few sentences and wondering what a movie about a career criminal has to do with emotions, but trust me, it does. That’s what makes this movie so easy to like. There’s something for everyone.
The one thing that is for everyone here, John Turturro. The man of the hour and maybe of the year. If you’re deep into movies like I am, you know you’ve seen him a lot over the decades but here he finally gets a chance to shine in a lead role that has a range of styles to play with. John has that talent to show off all angles of that here. He gets to be genuine, a threat, and a figure of poise. This performance came at a time in his career where him and the audience needed it the most. It’s a shame that best actor might be the toughest category to get into this year, because he deserves a spot.
For some reason I always keep my “negatives” for last, so I guess I’ll stick to what I do best. Or just do. I hated the “heavies” in this movie. The bad guys. The conflict. The antagonists. Whatever name you want to give them. They added no tension to the story here and honestly straight up annoyed me. They were like frozen oil to John’s flowing water. One guy in particular is in the running for the most punchable face of the year award. So, I guess if that’s what they were going for, they did it right. Still felt played out and did not fit the mold of this.
I lied, I won’t end on a negative note. Maybe spoilers? She’s in the cast list. Tatiana Maslany shows up here in a surprising way and absolutely steals and seals as the emotional and perfect performance of this film. I love her so much. Come back from She Hulk. We all deserve it.
If not just for Turturro, check this out just for being a cool film that doesn’t solely rely on heavy action to keep you entertained.
7.5/10
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