Urchin

Actor Harris Dickinson has made a name for himself in films like Babygirl, The Iron Claw and Triangle of Sadness. But his first film as writer-director is an impressive accomplishment by any standards, and picked up a couple of prizes in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes earlier this year. It’s a portrait of a London street kid, Mike (Frank Dillane), trying to get his life back on track after six months in prison. He’s kicked his drug habit and the state will provide a room and check-ins for a short time at least, but he needs to get a job and keep it — and get past whatever demons drove him to the streets in the first place.

Although the film operates primarily in the British social realist tradition of Ken Loach, Andrea Arnold et al, Dickinson invests the material with more ambiguous subjective flourishes, putting us not only in Mike’s head, but also in his dreams. Frank Dillane takes a difficult, destructive character, and makes us care.

Harris Dickinson steps behind the camera for a bruising, brilliantly strange debut that channels veteran auteurs like Jonathan Glazer and Andrea Arnold, while carving out a distinctive voice all its own.

Kaleem Aftab, Time Out

Terrifically impressive… smart and compassionate. It is engaging, sympathetically acted and layered with genuinely funny moments, mysterious and hallucinatory set-pieces, and challenges the notion of the haves who fear the contagious risk of coming into contact with the have-nots.

Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

Through sharp observation and dark humour, the film explores the challenges faced by those struggling to fit into society’s rigid moulds, offering a poignant, compelling look at resilience and alienation.

Peter Howell, Toronto Star