Nothing sets the knees knocking quite like an actor making threats that they’d “like to have a go at directing”. Should having been on a film set really make you entirely qualified to run the whole damn show? There are, of course, some notable exceptions. John Krasinski has recently made a more than decent stab of the A Quiet Place movies; Greta Gerwig took on Barbie and won. George Clooney and Ben Affleck have both done a bunch (not all of them classics, admittedly). Going back a bit, there is the small matter of one Orson Welles.
When news hit that 28-year-old British actor Harris Dickinson would be showing his directorial debut, Urchin, which he also wrote, in the Un Certain Regard category at the Cannes Film Festival, some trepidation was understandable (even if he is more seasoned than Welles, who was 25 when he made Citizen Kane).
To be fair to East Londoner Dickinson, who has several short films to his name already, his acting choices have indicated he’s a person of some discernment. From his breakthrough, Beach Rats, in which he played a closeted Coney Island teen, through to Ruben Östlund’s ingeniously batshit Triangle of Sadness in which he was a shipwrecked influencer, or Halina Reijn’s dom-com Babygirl, in which his eccentric intern seduced Nicole Kidman. He’s clearly drawn toward indie projects and idiosyncratic roles that are challenging and eye-catching. (He was also in The King’s Man, but everybody’s got to eat.)
From the reviews that have followed, it seems that, far from this being an ambition-o’erleaping-itself situation, Dickinson has more than delivered. Starring Frank Dillane, Urchin follows the fortunes and fate of a homeless man, Mike, who is navigating the streets of London and the moral hinterland of survival. The Guardian called it a “terrifically impressive debut”, Deadline says it’s “high art”. Little White Lies described it as “a piercing observation of modern life on the fringes”, while Variety went for “a jagged, perceptive slice of life from London’s grimier sidewalks”.
It seems more than probable that a distribution deal for Urchin will be forthcoming, so there should be a chance to see it in cinemas later this year (and if you’re a fan of Dickinson on screen, he does also have a cameo in it). Whether or not Harrison will go full tilt into directing after this is yet to be seen. He has said in interviews that it directing, not acting, was his first passion. He has the small matter of Sam Mendes’ quartet of Beatles biopics to get out of the way first, in which he will play John Lennon. Challenging and eye-catching, like we said.
