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Pickpocket poster

Movies that feel likePickpocket (1959)

Michel takes up pickpocketing on a lark and is arrested soon after. His mother dies shortly after his release, and despite the objections of his only friend, Jacques, and his mother's neighbor Jeanne, Michel teams up with a couple of petty thieves in order to improve his craft. With a police inspector keeping an eye on him, Michel also tries to get a straight job, but the temptation to steal is hard to resist.

If you loved Pickpocket, the closest films we have are The Wrong Man (1956), The Young and the Damned (1950) and Straight Time (1978). All three share Pickpocket's gritty and contemplative feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Blue Collar (1978).

🍅 93% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.5 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Robert Bressongrittycontemplative
5 of 12 streaming nowHBO Max · Criterion Channel · MGM Plus

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If Pickpocket hit the spot, these will too

The Wrong Man poster
The Wrong Man
1956 · dir. Alfred Hitchcock
🍅 93%★ 7.4crime · dramaMax

Common ground: black and white

In 1953, an innocent man named Christopher Emmanuel "Manny" Balestrero is arrested after being mistaken for an armed robber.

The Young and the Damned poster
The Young and the Damned
1950 · dir. Luis Buñuel
🍅 91%★ 8.2drama · crime

Both are built on the same subject: black and white

A group of juvenile delinquents live a violent life in the infamous slums of Mexico City; among them Pedro, whose morality is gradually corrupted and destroyed by the others.

Straight Time poster
Straight Time
1978 · dir. Ulu Grosbard
🍅 82%★ 7.4crime · drama

The same preoccupation in both: prison

After being released on parole, a burglar attempts to go straight, get a regular job, and just go by the rules. He soon finds himself back in jail at the hands of a power-hungry parole officer.

Fort Apache poster
Fort Apache
1948 · dir. John Ford
🍅 100%★ 7.4western

Crime built on grit, twice over

The difference: Easier on the stillness than Pickpocket

Owen Thursday sees his new posting to the desolate Fort Apache as a chance to claim the military honour which he believes is rightfully his. Arrogant, obsessed with military form and ultimately self-destructive, he attempts to destroy the Apache chief Cochise after luring him across the border from Mexico, against the advice of his subordinates.

Blue Collar poster
Blue Collar
1978 · dir. Paul Schrader
🍅 96%★ 7.5drama · crime

Both lean on stillness more than on drama

Fed up with mistreatment at the hands of both management and union brass, and coupled with financial hardships on each man's end, three auto assembly line workers hatch a plan to rob a safe at union headquarters.

A Short Film About Killing poster
A Short Film About Killing
1988 · dir. Krzysztof Kieślowski
🍅 91%★ 7.9crime · drama

One thread runs through both: prison

The difference: 29 years apart, and the 1980s show

Jacek climbs into the taxi driven by Waldemar, tells him to drive to a remote location, then brutally strangles him, seemingly without motive.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance poster
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
1962 · dir. John Ford
🍅 95%★ 8.1western

Gritty crime in both cases

The difference: Leans harder into western than Pickpocket does

Questions arise when Senator Stoddard attends the funeral of a local man named Tom Doniphon in a small Western town. Flashing back, we learn Doniphon saved Stoddard, then a lawyer, when he was roughed up by a crew of outlaws terrorizing the town, led by Liberty Valance. As the territory's safety hung in the balance, Doniphon and Stoddard, two of the only people standing up to him, proved to be very important, but different, foes to Valance.

Pixote poster
Pixote
1980 · dir. Héctor Babenco
🍅 94%★ 7.9crime · drama

Contemplative drama, and it commits to that

10-year-old Pixote endures torture, degradation, and corruption at a local youth detention center where two of its members are murdered by policemen who frame Lilica, a 17-year-old trans hustler. Pixote helps Lilica and three other boys escape and they start to make their living by a life of crime which only escalates to more violence and death.

R poster
R
2010 · dir. Tobias Lindholm
🍅 91%★ 7.1crime · drama

Crime with a pulse of grit, in both cases

Imprisoned for violent assault, Rune is placed in the hardcore ward, where his survival depends on quickly learning the prison's parallel world of rules, honor, and obligations.

The Ox-Bow Incident poster
The Ox-Bow Incident
1943 · dir. William A. Wellman
🍅 90%★ 8western

A 1940s answer to the same itch

A posse discovers a trio of men they suspect of murder and cow theft and are split between handing them over to the law or lynching them on the spot.

Giant poster
Giant
1956 · dir. George Stevens
🍅 86%★ 7.6drama · western

Contemplative drama in both cases

Wealthy rancher Bick Benedict and dirt-poor cowboy Jett Rink both woo Leslie Lynnton, a beautiful young woman from Maryland who is new to Texas. She marries Benedict, but she is shocked by the racial bigotry of the White Texans against the local people of Mexican descent. Rink discovers oil on a small plot of land, and while he uses his vast, new wealth to buy all the land surrounding the Benedict ranch, the Benedict's disagreement over prejudice fuels conflict that runs across generations.

The Public Enemy poster
The Public Enemy
1931 · dir. William A. Wellman
🍅 100%★ 7.6crime · drama

The same crime instincts

Two young Chicago hoodlums, Tom Powers and Matt Doyle, rise up from their poverty-stricken slum life to become petty thieves, bootleggers and cold-blooded killers. But with street notoriety and newfound wealth, the duo feels the heat from the cops and rival gangsters both. Despite his ruthless criminal reputation, Tom tries to remain connected to his family, however, gang warfare and the need for revenge eventually pull him away.

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The best-reviewed films that share Pickpocket’s defining feeling.