Harris Dickinson debuts the direction with Urchin and surprises Cannes

There was an old joke about the Hollywood ambition: the actor who said “I actually want to be a director”. A joke, perhaps, but not entirely without foundation. For each actor who managed to become an excellent director, there are at least as many who, once behind the camera, have sensationally failed. The Cannes Film Festival It is full of these examples: from the indigestible arrogance of Sean Penn in Your last look to the irritating pretentiness of Ryan Gosling with Lost River. That’s why, I admit it, I raised my eyes to heaven (just a little!) When I learned that Harris Dickinson28 -year -old born star, he would have debuted on the Croisette with URCHINhis First director film.

Then I read the synopsis and I raised them a little more: Frank Dillane (son of the actor Stephen Dillane, seen in game of Thrones) interprets a London homeless man who wanders around the city looking for money, hospitality and a minimum of stability. The fear was that it was yet another aesthetic operation from the University of New York, like those students who in Tompkins Square Park photograph the homeless people asleep on the benches, convinced that the goal of their reflex automatically dignity and artistic thickness. Dickinson, however, is a refined actor (as far as he appears, he shot only one ugly Hollywood film for young adults), and perhaps judging his debut too quickly was unfair. The suspicion, however, remained: yet another actor-regista armed with vanity and superficiality?

With my great relief, URCHIN (in preview in the Unain Regard of Cannes section) has proved to be a mature debut, conscious, stylistically solid. Dickinson, who also signs the script and plays in a small secondary role, does not hide his influences, but re -elaborates them in a work that has a clear and personal voice. With the intense interpretation of Dillane, URCHIN builds the painful and credible portrait of a man on the marginslost in an indifferent and prisoner society of the twisted mechanisms of his mind.

Mike, the protagonist, is a young man who slips from late adolescence to adulthood by living on the street. His uncertain gestures and his gaze off they suggest an addiction, but at times he re -emerges a lively intelligence, a kind personality, the desire to get back on track. After a bad robbery and a few months in prison, Mike comes out clean and determined to start again.

So far, it would seem the classic narrative trajectory: the fall, the rebirth, the relapse and, finally, the hope. Dickinson, however, with a calm direction, attentive and never complacent, subverts this scheme just enough to make URCHIN unpredictable. It also goes towards artistic abstraction when guiding us within the Mike’s psyche, in a mind that alternates hells and small inner paradises. The influences? You might think of Sean Baker for vital energy, Mike Leigh for the tired and compassionate gaze on everyday life.

The film accompanies Mike in his wandering and in the fleeting bonds that weaves with other lost souls, especially colleagues, from whom he receives company, but never a real refuge. Dillane offers an intense and stratified interpretation: it makes us become attached to Mike without justifying its apathy or selfishness. It is a credible portrait of addiction, or at least one of its multiple forms.

Look at URCHINthere is never the feeling of the artistic tourist who wanders in the poor neighborhoods to satisfy his curiosity. Nor can you breathe that coarse and “gritty” patina that has contaminated many recent films on social discomfort (to understand each other, watch Lolathe 2024 film signed by the billionaire heredict Nicola Pietz. Indeed no, better not to do it). Dickinson avoids every paternalistic tone, and surprises for the authentic compassion of his gaze: far from the pre -packaged idea of ​​the beautiful and famous twenty year old. Some falls in the indie clichés – Like the guys who shake sparkling sticks in a parking lot, to symbolize their joy of life – does not compromise the result. And if it is exciting to discover a successful debut, It is equally desired to see what it will do later. Perhaps, before shooting, other actors should also spend some time in the Criterion video library.