Urchin (2025)
Genre: Drama
Duration: 99 minuten
Country:
United Kingdom / United States
Directed by: Harris Dickinson
Stars: Frank Dillane, Megan Northam and Karyna Khymchuk
IMDb score:
6,8 (4.834)
Releasedate: 17 May 2025
Urchin plot
Homeless Mike lives in London, where he combines small jobs with petty theft. After a stay in prison, he receives social assistance. By fighting his personal demons and breaking out of the vicious circle of self-destruction, he tries to build a better life for himself.
Actors and actresses
Reviews & comments
Drulko Vlaschjan
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- 510 messages
- 443 votes
A great film, which, despite the protagonist's rough life, is still quite lighthearted and witty at times. Other moments range from uncomfortable to deeply sad. The oscillation between realism and surrealism worked well for me.
Besides a tender portrait of a boy struggling to fit into society, the film is primarily an indictment of society, or at least the system itself. There are plenty of well-meaning people and well-intentioned initiatives, but it's all insufficient, and ultimately, everyone is even more disoriented.
Translated from Dutch · View original
De filosoof
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- 2572 messages
- 1761 votes
The film depicts a homeless, addicted young man who, after serving a prison sentence for robbery, receives all the help he needs from authorities and kind citizens to get his life back on track but who nevertheless slides back into a homeless, addicted existence on the streets. I don't know if you're meant to feel sympathy for him: I certainly didn't, because he's a typical "urchin," which is the English word for hedgehog, but since the 19th century, has primarily been a street child with a connotation of irritation (Dickens became famous with his stories about "urchins"). Just like our addicted homeless man, he accosts people on the street for money, which, of course, they usually find annoying and try to ignore as much as possible (and he robs precisely those who don't). This leads to the core of his life: he longs to fit in, but he can't because he's actually just annoying. There's also a touch of surrealistic mysticism in the film, which made me think that just as people in the past might have relied too much on God—the film opens tellingly with him waking up irritated on the street to the voice of a street preacher he doesn't want to hear—our generation, and this young man in particular, relies too much on the institutions and their surroundings to care for them, a byproduct of our welfare state. I primarily saw a man who refuses to grow up and will likely remain a child for the rest of his life (and his self-therapy of Eastern meditations to gain more self-confidence does little to combat that learned helplessness). What the film touches on here may be interesting, but the film itself is unfortunately just annoying, because nothing interesting ever happens.
Translated from Dutch · View original
mrklm
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- 12367 messages
- 10458 votes
After five years living on the streets, Mike [Frank Dillane] is sentenced to eight months in prison for a brutal mugging. He kicks the habit and finds work as a cook in a simple restaurant, but struggles with the daily routine and sticking to agreements. Dillane delivers a brilliant performance, guided by Dickinson's gritty, lifelike script, which is more subject to the vagaries of life than to conventions. A heavy read, but definitely worth it.
Translated from Dutch · View original
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