Certificate: 12A
Running Time: 84 mins
UK Distributor: Picturehouse Entertainment
WHO’S IN SCRAPPER?
Lola Campbell, Harris Dickinson, Alin Uzun, Cary Crankson, Carys Bowkett, Freya Bell, Laura Aikman, Ayokunle Oyesanwo, Ayobami Oyesanwo, Ayooluwa Oyesanwo, Olivia Brady
WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?
Charlotte Regan (director, writer), Theo Barrowclough (producer), Patrick Jonsson (composer), Molly Manning Walker (cinematographer), Matteo Bini and Billy Sneddon (editors)
WHAT’S IT ABOUT?
A young girl (Campbell) living alone confronts her reality when her absent father (Dickinson) unexpectedly returns…
WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON SCRAPPER?
Filmmaker Charlotte Regan’s simply wonderful debut feature Scrapper subverts clichés from literally the first few seconds: over a black background, on-screen text recalls that famous proverb, “It takes a village to raise a child,” only for it to be scribbled out and replaced with the handwritten defiance, “I can raise myself thanks”.
It’s a moment that not only sets the lightly comedic tone for the rest of the movie, but also lets the viewer know right away that it is not going to be sticking too closely to convention and shall be playing around quite ferociously with what the working-class British drama has become known for. Regan’s film is by no means a tale of economic misery or social activism this side of Ken Loach, but is instead an incredibly soulful and warm-hearted movie about finding your tribe, even in the most difficult of circumstances and environments.
Scrapper follows 12-year-old Georgie (Lola Campbell), who has been secretly living alone in her council house ever since her mother passed away. She manages to pay the bills by stealing and then re-selling bikes with her best friend Ali (Alin Uzun), keeps the social workers at bay by faking phone conversations with her “Uncle Winston Churchill”, and unbeknownst to everyone else she is building a mountain of scrap in a locked bedroom, for heart-breaking reasons that become clearer later on. One day, Georgie is stunned to have a man named Jacob (Harris Dickinson) show up at her door – by way of climbing over the back fence, as you do – and claim to be her father, having finally turned up after being absent for all her life. As Georgie struggles to contend with this new unwanted parental figure in her life, she also begins to realise that Jacob might be what she has been needing all this time.
At its core is a simple story of a father and daughter brought back together in the wake of tragedy, but Regan does not wander into the easy trap of providing endless schmaltz or constant misery to appear profound, instead choosing a more optimistic and even funny approach that wears its heart firmly on its sleeve. Her script finds a perfect tonal balance that allows the characters to acknowledge the grief that they share while also making light of the situation without coming off as insensitive, with some extremely funny sequences dedicated to showing just how far young Georgie is willing to go to keep herself afloat in what is a pretty rough situation. Regan doesn’t let her characters off too easy, though, for she isn’t afraid to have them do and say some nasty things that come from a very real place of emotion, but she still makes you really care about them because they’re written to be complicated and vulnerable people who are in desperate need of something bigger than themselves.
Meanwhile, Regan’s directorial style shows off a vibrant and distinctive narrative voice that manages to be both eccentric and grounded without feeling forced into either direction. Throughout, the director blends gritty realism with playful fantasy to compliment young Georgie’s active imagination, such as envisioning the spiders in her home conversing in video game speech bubbles, or documentary-style interviews with other residents commenting on their like or dislike (mostly dislike) of Georgie. Thanks to cinematographer Molly Manning Walker (whose own directorial debut, the Cannes favourite How to Have Sex, is due for release later this year), the film is also popping with colour like it’s a Jacques Tati musical, which only further adds to the magical realist tone that Regan is setting. The overall style is very much within the same ballpark as the Paddington films, which similarly lean into a quirky aesthetic while still telling a heartfelt story with plentiful characters, but Regan differs from Paul King in that she doesn’t let the mise-en-scène entirely dominate the frame, no matter how endearing it may be, and lets her moments play out for as long as they need to without getting too distracted by the colourful world around them.
Holding it all together is a fantastic central turn by young actor Lola Campbell, who remarkably has not performed in anything prior, not that you’d be able to tell from how naturally funny and charming she is in front of the camera. Her Georgie is a firecracker of a character, sharp-witted and ferocious but still overwhelmingly naïve when it comes to dealing with her more pressing problems, and Campbell brilliantly nails both the mischievous nature and the raw vulnerability of her role while also finding some genuine heart to counteract her tough-as-nails front. She shares extremely believable chemistry with Harris Dickinson, equally compelling in a meaty role, as well as scene-stealer Alin Uzun who gets some genuinely laugh-out-loud moments as her loyal best friend, but this is primarily Lola Campbell’s show, and she proves herself to be a formidable young talent whose star can only go further upwards from here.
In a year that’s already produced a number of outstanding British debut features, Scrapper is right up there with the likes of Rye Lane and Blue Jean as one of the year’s most noteworthy entries, with a tremendous amount of heart, style and charm to win you over and seal you in with its big huggable arms. It’s just the right kind of bright, pleasant British cinema that we desperately need right now, free of working-class drama conventions and fully embracing of its own identity as well as its tremendously crowd-pleasing soul.
SO, TO SUM UP…
Scrapper is an outstanding debut feature from writer-director Charlotte Regan that avoids working-class drama tropes to tell a story with a vibrant sense of soul and style, led by a fantastic central performance from young Lola Campbell that will warm your heart in all the right places.
Scrapper is showing in cinemas from Friday 25th August 2023
