June 27

Movie 27

The June Swoon 5 takes a serious turn into the world of independent film with a British movie called Urchin, written and directed by Harris Dickinson.

According to IMDB, “A young addict living on the streets of London is given a shot at redemption, but his road to recovery soon curdles into a strange odyssey from which he may never escape.”

When I called this an independent film, this is what I would consider a clear definition of that term. This movie is not about a plot. It follows the main character of Mike in scenes from his life as he moves through it. It is absolutely a character study about Mike, this homeless addict who has to do things to survive. Those things lead to him facing consequences. Every scene is basically scenes of his life and the story is basically Mike’s life.

Frank Dillane played Mike and he does a tremendous job in his role. You feel for him even as he is making poor choices.

Another trait of an independent movie is that the ending is a weird, artsy end. Urchin has that and I am not sure how I feel about it. It doesn’t fit with the rest of the movie so it felt like it came out of nowhere and it leaves the film up for serious interpretation.

I thought this was an intriguing movie, but I am not sure how I felt about the ending. Great performances and a tone of sadness surrounds the movie. It is very emoptional.