November Movies Part 1: Clayface & The Only Living Pickpocket in New York

The first week of November has resulted in me watching one of the most mediocre films of the year and then one of the most sublime. Don't you love when that happens?

Clayface: Written by Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini and directed by James Watkins, this is another entry into the DC Cinematic Universe that provides the origin story of Clayface, an actor named Matt Hagen (Tom Rhys Harries), who ends up needing extensive surgical treatment after he is attacked by mobsters and his face is ruined. The plastic surgeons can't fix his face, so in desperation he turns to Dr. Caitlyn Corr (Naomi Ackie), a woman who has developed nano robots that can be injected into a body and initiate repair of all damaged tissues. Of course, due to circumstances, Matt overdoses, which results in disastrous consequences. The nano robots run rogue and he initially has no control over what his body does. But as he starts to learn how to manipulate this power, he's eventually going to go on a quest for vengeance that will turn him into Gotham's latest supervillain.

If you have any familiarity with British actors, you'll enjoy seeing a bunch of British stalwarts like Eddie Marsan and Rob Brydon pop up in this movie. If you like body horror, you'll certainly have plenty to gross you out over the course of this film - I was certainly cringing and squirming in my seat during plenty of sequences. I went into this movie having no idea it was R-rated, so I was quickly surprised by the nudity and language, and then very startled as organs started to be turned inside out. This movie is aggressively mid - it's not terrible, but it's definitely nothing I would go out of my way to watch unless I was a DC purist. It felt like all the money was poured into special effects and everything else was on a budget, and it is at best some B-movie horror shlock. Take it or leave it - I would leave it.

The Only Living Pickpocket in New York: Written and directed by Noah Segan, this movie is a love letter to New York City that manages to feature scenes in all five boroughs, though I certainly died laughing at how Staten Island got incorporated into the mix. We follow Harry (John Turturro), a small-time criminal who wanders the city picking pockets and stealing items that he can fence at his friend Ben's (Steve Buscemi) pawn shop. Unfortunately, when he steals from the wrong guy, he is forced to crisscross New York City in search of an item he sold off so that he can return it to the owner.

I can't go into much more detail. This is a gorgeous 90-minute movie, so it just whizzes along with its plot and many, many subway rides. Get ready to get real familiar with the D train! There are cameos from many famous actors, but mainly you get to see Turturro do some of his best work. There is one scene where he is just dancing and man was I transfixed. The soundtrack is full of songs about being a New Yorker, and it comes full circle in a magical way that had me smiling when I left the theater. This is certainly an instance where I'm thoroughly recommending a film because of how New York it is, so I know that can't resonate with everybody, but it's also just a well-paced, brilliantly acted, and gorgeously shot film that has earned its place in the pantheon of singular films about New York City and its varied inhabitants who are just trying to get by. Go see it immediately.