Urchin 2025 Movie Review
Without a roof over his head, life in London is a daily struggle. Drug-addicted Mike (Frank Dillane) knows this all too well. Together with his mate Nathan (Harris Dickinson), he tries every day to scrape together enough cash to get by. In doing so, he often has run-ins with the law. As is the case after he robs a well-meaning banker and is promptly caught by the police.
After his release from prison, Mike is determined to get his life back on track. Not only does he give up drugs, but he also lands a job as a chef in a restaurant. When he meets Andrea (Megan Northam), who has also opted out of her former life, and a tender romance blossoms between them, his life finally seems to be heading in the right direction. However, the constant threat of relapse looms.
Drugs are bad. But they can inspire good films. Almost 30 years after Trainspotting, Harris Dickinson presents another impressive junkie portrait with Urchin – only the protagonists’ Scottish accent is missing. Lead actor Frank Dillane seizes the opportunity for a top performance, winning over the audience. The story offers no huge surprises, and some directorial decisions may be debatable. But overall, the film is compelling precisely because it takes its protagonist seriously – despite all his weaknesses.
Psycho isn’t the only film with a memorable shower scene. Urchin also has one, appearing just about fifteen minutes in. The film temporarily departs from the path of social drama, adding an additional, dreamlike layer to the story. And at that point, at the latest, it also becomes clear which film undoubtedly served as inspiration here. Because, as we recall, Trainspotting also features a legendary scene involving sanitary installations.
Lead actor Frank Dillane certainly took a few cues from Ewan McGregor, whose role at the time turned him into an international superstar. And successfully so. He plays the addicted young man as a charismatic bohemian, behind whose cool facade, however, a very insecure and vulnerable side is revealed. You believe both sides of him and empathise with him when he threatens to go off the rails again.
«Urchin» means «Strassenkind» when translated into German. The film soberly depicts, with humorous interludes, life without a roof over one’s head. It is not primarily a drug drama, but rather a character portrait. In doing so, it also avoids the mistake of wanting to equip the characters with too much backstory, instead focusing entirely on their present. The fantastical elements mentioned at the beginning wouldn’t even have been strictly necessary. Because thanks to its human characters, the story works as it is.
With Urchin, Harris Dickinson – the pretty boy from Triangle of Sadness and Nicole Kidman’s lover in Babygirl – presents his first film as a director, in which he also plays a supporting role. It is an astonishingly mature directorial debut from the actor, who, by the way, was born in 1996 and is therefore exactly the same age as Trainspotting. If that isn’t a sign.
