I stumbled upon this used DVD in a thrift store and knew nothing about it. It just caught my eye and something told me to buy it. I'm so very glad I did. Sometimes the stars align and miracles happen, and that's what it took for me to find out about this excellent little movie.
I was expecting it to be a micro-budget indie film with bad acting, and hoping for a few redeeming moments and a whole lot of charm, which is about the best you can ask for from that type of film (I thought). But I was blown away. Five minutes into the movie I realized I was watching something else entirely. I've never seen anything like it. I didn't know indie films could be made this well.
Everything about it is just perfect and far better than any attempt I have seen before. The cinematography is beautiful and the editing is very good, as it the acting, which surprised me the most. The actors here are all ones I'd never seen before, so no big stars, but they all did an excellent job (aside from a few moments of mediocre acting in some of the smaller roles).
Now let's get to the story. It's about a young woman in her twenties who lives in New York. We've seen it a hundred times, right? Nah, this woman happens to be a pickpocket. And for the first time ever, we get to watch a pickpocket going about her day. Some have argued that there's no plot, but wouldn't a plot just make it so boring? That's been done before! It's better just to watch the characters sometimes. This one is fascinating!
Everything was very well done for such a low-budget film, although I later found out that multimillionaires Andy and Kate Spade had something to do with this production. I believe that most of that money went to acquiring film stock, however, as this film was shot on good old film rather than digital, the latter being the preferred medium for films like this. But the film look really makes this all that much better, and really adds to the style and makes it look more legitimate while still maintaining wonderful raw and gritty feel.
