Urchin

Harris Dickinson’s pulsating directorial debut is a raw and stylistic London drama about addiction, friendship, and second chances.

Mike is a charming homeless young man who feeds his addiction through petty crime on the streets of London. After a fight lands him in prison, he’s suddenly given the chance to start over. He tries to build new routines, but every step forward is threatened by old impulses. Frank Dillane is truly outstanding as the endearing yet self-destructive Mike, and Dickinson (who steps behind the camera after his breakout in Triangle of Sadness) shows in every frame an impressive directorial eye shaped by Andrea Arnold–style social realism yet charged with a nerve all his own.

• Erik Toresson Hellqvist