Pickpocket captures the experience of being left behind. As the camera follows Xiao Wu, the film captures how the sweeping changes enacted by China have improved the lives of many of his former friends. It’s supposed to be good. Sadly, that's not for everyone. For people like Wu, a criminal, these reforms alienate them. It makes other people’s perceptions tougher on them, whether they won’t or just simply couldn’t change along with their town. It’s the unglamorous side of modernization that many hate seeing in their own cities, but director Jia Zhangke depicts this side by side with the last vestiges of what Xiao Wu has known, capturing the melancholy of the generations left behind.

The film is more interested in depicting a certain mood, and it does so quite well, but because of it, this film won’t work for people who like their movies character driven or with a clear message.