Common Sense Media Review
By Brian Costello
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Aspiring teen thieves learn the trade; violence, cursing.
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Pickpockets
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's the Story?
Fresh and Doggy are part of a group of teen PICKPOCKETS on the streets of Bogotá. Their actions attract the attention of Chucho (Carlos Bardem), an expert pickpocket from Spain who cannot leave Colombia until he pays his debts to a corrupt police officer. Chucho instructs Fresh and Doggy in the best ways to pickpocket without having to resort to violence. Fresh and Doggy recruit their new friend Juana to join them as they go on a pickpocketing spree, stealing wallets, change purses, and smartphones. Chucho takes a cut of their "earnings" as payment for his training and also because he works "undercover" as a security guard, with access to all the security cameras posted on the streets he watches. As they start to get better and steal more valuables, Fresh, Doggy, and Juana attract the attention of their former pickpocket gang from the old neighborhood they used to work. Despite being told by everyone to stay out of that old neighborhood, Fresh, Doggy, and Juana go rogue and pickpocket wealthy attendees of the opera. This leads to calamitous consequences for all concerned, and after Doggy goes too far and is taken prisoner and Chucho disavows them for going it alone in a neighborhood outside of his jurisdiction, Fresh and Juana must use all of their newfound skills to pull off their most difficult heist yet, rescue Doggy, and make things right with Chucho.
Is It Any Good?
This movie somehow manages to pull back from the brink of all things noir cliché as the action barrels along to a riveting climax. At first, Pickpockets suggests it might be the usual pileup of post-Tarantino tropes -- glorified thieves, sardonically clever crime bosses, humor mined out of self-aware nihilism -- but as it progresses, the substance of the story takes over from the expected noir style. There's enough backstory to Chucho (the elder statesman of pickpockets) and Fresh (the leader of the three teen pickpockets under Chucho's tutelage) to make the action something more than the inherent thrill of stealing from unwitting pedestrians -- just enough to make the viewer root for them, warts and all.
And it's because none of the characters are very decent or kind or trustworthy that the ending is as unpredictable as an ending can be these days. Will everyone die? Will there be double-, triple-, quadruple-crosses until only one emerges victorious? Who will make it out of this relatively unscathed, and how? The second half of the movie is everything you would want from an action-driven noir movie, and while it's easy to think otherwise at the beginning, Pickpockets doesn't disappoint.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about how crime was shown in Pickpockets. Did the movie glamorize picking pockets, or did it portray the act in a bad light?
How does this movie compare to others centered on criminals?
What do you see as the appeal of movies in which all of the characters make questionable life decisions?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming : April 12, 2018
- Cast : Carlos Bardem , Natalia Reyes , Emiliana Pernia
- Director : Peter Webber
- Studio : Netflix
- Genre : Drama
- Run time : 108 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- Last updated : August 7, 2022
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