Urchin

GoMovieReviews Rating: ★★★☆ (3.2/5)

Rated: MA15+

Written and Directed by: Harris Dickinson

Produced by: Archie Pearch and Scott O’Donnell

Starring: Frank Dillane, Megan Northam, Harris Dickinson, Amr Waked.

‘You’re going to be just fine.’

Mike (Frank Dillane) wakes up on a London street.  Dirty sweatpants, hair on end.  A street preacher talks of the King of Kings, The Alpha and the Omega.  Mike shushes the preacher as he stumbles past.

It’s a picture of quiet desperation.  A ritual of laying out carboard on a damp concrete ground, the plastic sheet, then sleeping bag.

‘Just wondering if you’ve got any change.’

It’s a cycle that goes ‘round and ‘round.

The wait of hand-outs, the charity food vans, the wallet stolen by another rough sleeper, the philosophical conversations about public good will.

To the inevitable incarceration.

Mike needs a chance.  After having so many.

Urchin is a study of Mike as he follows a well-worn path of homelessness.  Of stunted growth, so he’s stuck on a track he can’t pull away from.

Writer and director, Harris Dickinson states, “I started to sculpt and adapt my story around the things that were happening around me, really trying to understand the issue. I wanted to tell a story about a young man in my area. Stories about addiction, homelessness, and trauma can often feel heavy-handed, so I wanted to weave in comedy too—because with great tragedy often comes humour and levity. At its core, this is a story about cyclical behaviour. I worked on it for a long time, scrutinizing it with advisors from probation services, mental health support, and prison reform. I wanted to fully understand this world to find the story within it.”

Frank Dillane as Mike shows the confused grasping of someone failing to get it right, to then shine in redemption when he grabs onto the life raft the system provides.

A hostel to stay in, a job, a chance.  Another chance.

‘I hope I don’t see you again,’ the prison officer tells Mike.

It’s a rollercoaster of reality without getting too tough.  More a sadness at the opportunity of being who Mike could be with a little love and attention.  But he’s like a child in a man’s body, helpless when it comes to surviving the hits of everyday life.

There’s a clear eye that records Mike’s story, that doesn’t confront but delves more into the internal landscape of how Mike escapes into his addiction, his reaching out to the invisible force behind the world, his reaching for help, guidance, to watch through a tunnel to the other side.  So it’s a rough enchantment watching Mike live his wayward life.  Like watching a desperate innocence.

It’s a depressing watch at this time of year, but also a relatable reminder of the many out there sleeping on cardboard.  It’s a life that can happen to anyone, producer Scott O’Donnell stating, “You realise that most of us are just one or two instances away from being in the same situation. It only takes a few things to go wrong, and suddenly your life can take an entirely different direction.”

I appreciated the outer edge, magic realism to show Mike’s internal life, a way of expressing what Mike can’t because he’s lost touch with what he feels, to show that battle of spirit of reaching out to then lose to addiction all over again.

It’s a sad reality, like a slow burn sadness with spots of sunshine and casts to the hidden shadows of falling though space – Urchin shows a unique perspective of addiction.