Harris Dickinson’s Urchin is full of life, empathy and introspection, beautifully carried by Frank Dillane’s heartbreaking performance.
Writer & Director: Harris Dickinson
Genre: Drama
Run Time: 99′
Cannes Premiere: May 17, 2025 (Un Certain Regard)
U.S. Release Date: TBA
U.K. Release Date: TBA
Harris Dickinson’s star has steadily been on the rise since his breakout performance in Eliza Hittman’s 2017 Beachrats. He has proven to be a truly magnetic force on screen, which is why attention quickly mounted when news of his directorial debut at Cannes was announced. The transition from actor to director, while seemingly very common, isn’t always an organic fit. However, in Dickinson’s film Urchin, it is clear that directing was always meant to be a part of his career’s progression.
Dickinson is able to evoke the same magnetism off-screen as he is on and has delivered audiences an empathetic and deeply profound story about trying to build yourself up while having an anchor holding you down.
Urchin opens on Mike (Frank Dillane, of Harvest), a young unhoused man living in London with a serious substance abuse issue. While living on the streets for the past five years, he has become a part of a community of people who are also in and out of shelters. When his friend robs him, he seeks him out and the two get into a physical altercation. Luckily, a passerby is able to break the two up before the fight escalates.
Mike’s friend quickly peels off and the man who broke up the fight offers to buy Mike a meal. Mike sees this act of kindness, albeit minorly self-gratifying and performative on the man’s part, as an opportunity. After leading him under a dark bridge, Mike knocks the man out and robs him to try and make back the money his friend has stolen from him.
Immediately caught by police, Mike returns to prison for the third time and serves 7 months before he is released on parole. When meeting with his parole officer, Mike makes a solid attempt to work the system that was put in place to try and help him succeed, even if the system seems too busy and impartial to try and work in conjunction with him.
Dickinson’s greatest gift as a director is his empathetic gaze. We never get the sense that judgment is being cast on Mike for his decision-making. The harshest judge of Mike is Mike. Through his portrayal of the parole system, Dickinson creates an overarching understanding that Mike’s battle with addiction and his lack of a support system make his desire to break free from this cycle of addiction that much harder.
He writes Mike as a charming and kind man who decides to use this reprieve to try and make a real go of his life. Mike buys a CD that reads him positive affirmations each morning, he proudly upholds his sobriety right after he is released and he seeks to make connections at his new job.
Urchin truly is a tragedy. While there’s light and fun and humor sprinkled into the film, below the surface, it is a story about a young man trying to stop his pattern of self-destruction but not having the power to do so. His issues with addiction and his time on the streets have hardened him, making it difficult to believe in the selfless empathy of others, but also reliant on it in some aspects.
It also shows the failings of a system designed with the hope of helping those in need, but not stocked with any of the actual tools to do so. Mike seeks validation from the parole system, but it’s difficult for the mental health professionals he works with to give that to him in a way Mike needs. He doesn’t want to be pandered to in a general mental health assessment, but rather spoken to with dignity and an understanding that he is not a statistic on a sheet but a living, breathing human being.
Frank Dillane’s performance breaks your heart. He beautifully portrays Mike as a man half in and half out of the world. Both desperately wanting to connect and highly doubtful of his place in society. Highlighted by a score chalked full of lively, electric dance music, Dickinson’s debut has a true pulse to it, with Dillane serving as the film’s heart.
Urchin is a film that encapsulates both the sorrows and the joys of the human experience. Dickinson’s movie is full of life and humanity in telling the story of a man who has been overlooked time and time again, but who is choosing to show up for himself. With the story being rooted in reality but also employing certain surrealist elements, Dickinson bends traditional storytelling conventions to create a truly empathic, artful film.
Urchin: Movie Plot & Recap
Synopsis:
Mike, a young unhoused man living in London, is trying to break free from the cycle of addiction in order to turn his life around.
Pros:
- Full of life, empathy and introspection.
- Frank Dillane gives a heartbreaking performance while still managing to carry the lighter parts of the film with humor and charisma.
Cons:
- The last third of the film, being the most experimental portion of the story, seems initially like a harsh deviation from the story we are watching, but retrospectively does wonders for the progression of the film.
Urchin premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on May 17-19, 2025, in Un Certain Regard.
