Its amazing to see how quickly Harris Dickinson has rose to prominence. Triangle of Sadness (Östuland, 2022) and Babygirl (Reijn, 2024) for me show his talent to the fullest as an actor. For a person with good looks and the physicality to play any main role in mainstream films, he resists this in the films he’s acted in even if these attributes are at the heart of the stories. He is able to see the vision that his roles entail to such a degree that they can ultimately make the films work by themselves, for me this is the case for the films already stated here. The lead male role can only be pulled off here by Harris Dickinson who displays a deepness not usually associated with someone who would be many peoples idea of physical perfection. Yet already at the age of 28 he has stepped back from acting at the real start of what will be an illustrious carer, and directed his first film with Urchin.

What I have said about Harris Dickinson rings true with Urchin. It is a well directed film that shows how he has more talent than just directing a mainstream film. It is a fairly straightforward premise for a film that concerns Mike (Frank Dillane) who struggles to find a place to live in London and altogether place in society. Yet the film is more than just a social commentary or piece of realist drama. It dips its toe into the inner turmoil of Mike but never falls into the absurd. The film isn’t necessarily giving light to injustices within society that have caused to him to fall on hard times, in many ways it shows him in this place as a result of his own actions. It is a drama in the purest sense where the character goes on an individual journey. We are the ones to determine the probability of his outcome after the camera leaves him, and we chose if we can forgive him for his actions and see him as a good person (or even good protagonist).