Urchin

 

This review may contain spoilers!

Urchin follows Mike, a young homeless man living in London and his journey towards rehabilitation after he assaults a person on the street for their watch.

As a character piece, this film is absolutely stunning. Mike is the sort of down-on-his-luck protagonist you want to root for; redemption dangles before him a few times. But then you are reminded that Mike is capable of cruelty, that he can lack empathy for his violent outbursts. He also returns to bad habits as a result of his addiction; his life is a spiral of self-destruction. Urchin holds a harsh mirror up to living on the streets, fighting to get just enough money to eat that day. Even the system in place to rehabilitate Mike seems detached. He is another body in the chair, needing therapy, needing medicine, needing accommodation. It's entirely tough watching him start to heal and grow, but then something bureaucratic fails him, and he takes a misstep. One of the things that makes Mike feel secure in his rehabilitation program is missed and suddenly he is in free-fall again. There is a point in this film in which Mike starts taking drugs again, and it is scary how aggressively he pursues that addiction now that it's in front of him again.

There is a real artistic lens across some scenes in Urchin. Those moments of Mike in solitude have such deliberate framing around them; this is a very grounded lens that takes in the world around Mike, too. I was also impressed with the pace set by the editing; it felt very steady. The score doesn't always feel the most present, but it is a choking element that really adds to that anxiety of teetering upon the precipice. 

Harris Dickinson, who played Nathan, was a very skittish role; Dickinson's homeless character spun quick lies that rang hollow the moment he said them. Michael Colgan, who played Scott, felt like a calm guiding presence; the scene in which he makes Mike feel patronised is very well-handled. Buckso Dhillon-Woolley, who played Nadia, is quite a stern and dismissive presence at times; it feels like she sees through Mike's niceties, which is refreshing. Okezie Morro, who played Simon, is a sincerely good-natured character; Morro's recounting of the crime in his last scene is one of the more harrowing moments. Amr Waked, who played Franco, is a straight shooter from the get-go; Waked is wary but wants to imagine the best is possible from the people on his staff.

However, the best performance came from Frank Dillane, who played Mike. I remember watching Dillane as Nathan in Fear the Walking Dead, another young addict role he portrayed in an exemplary manner. This role demands those moments of intensity from Dillane, a rabid quality to sustain the addiction. He can get violent to get money for the drugs. He can plead and barter, and he can break down. Mike is a character who wanders in a very isolated way through the streets of London, seeking all the things or people he needs to keep his pattern of being going. There are moments within the film in which Mike heals as a character. You see him accept responsibility, he apologises for his wrongs, shows empathy and connects with others. It is these moments of hope Dillane dangles in front of the audience nicely before ending it abruptly with a self-destructive implosion.

A tragic drama like Urchin likes to dwell comfortably in the misery of life sometimes, its entire thing is doing hardship well. But this does mean that Mike's story can get repetitive at times. More than this, there's a real performative quality to the commentary on homelessness at times. I didn't think the metaphorical elements of the film landed especially well. The nature scenes were strange, and the ending is a bizarre means of tying up loose ends.

I think this film often shows a lot more promise than it does flaws. However, as Harris Dickinson's directorial debut, it could stand to learn one particular lesson: it's okay to leave some stuff on the cutting room floor. The moments when the camerawork looked bad were when every shot felt included, when a montage happened where one wasn't needed. Not every creative effort was needed to bring forth that vision, sometimes post-production is a good place to kill your darlings. The soundtrack was an odd assortment that felt more like what the budget could get than anything else.

Megan Northam, who played Andrea, had quite a scattered role that barely connected with Dillane; the pair felt quite suddenly jammed together in the course of the film. Karyna Khymchuk and Shonagh Marie, who played Ramona and Chanelle respectively, are an unusual pair to be Mike's first sober friends; the friendship dynamic feels quite surface-level, with neither actress really elevating the relationships forming between everyone. 

Frank Dillane is exemplary here, with Harris Dickinson's directing debut showing a lot of promise. I would give Urchin a 6.5/10.