Film review: ‘SCRAPPER’ by Nick Gardener from ‘Built For Speed’
Low-budget British drama, Scrapper takes a slender plot and infuses it with pathos and slightly erratic humour for one of the year’s more engaging cinematic oddities.
Following her mother’s death, 12-year-old Georgie (Lola Campbell) is living by herself on an English council estate. Dodging school, making money selling stolen bikes with her friend Ali (Alin Uzun) and duping social services into thinking she’s in her uncle ‘Winston Churchill’s’ care, she seems to be fending remarkably well for herself. Her situation abruptly changes, though, when her deadbeat dad, Jason (Harris Dickinson) who had previously fled to Ibiza just after Georgie’s birth, unexpectedly shows up wanting to reconnect with her. Georgie, however, is none too keen on having a new parent in her life, especially a questionable character like Jason.
Scrapper is an odd, inconsistent but delightfully intriguing mix. It’s often raw, honest and matter of fact in its depiction of Georgie’s downbeat milieu. Occasionally, though, it slips into surreal territory with fantasy sequences conveying Georgie’s emotional turmoil and bizarre comical bits such as having the spiders on the wall talk to each other. The film even resembles Wes Anderson’s works at times with characters living in striking pastel-coloured flats and groups of oddly dressed children standing in formation delivering droll comments to camera. There are a few genuinely funny moments but the bizarro gags at times feel a little forced and out of place. This includes the way it makes fun of the seemingly clueless social services and the schoolteacher who appears glad Georgie isn’t turning up. These scenes are briefly amusing but miss the opportunity to make a potent comment about failing institutions.
Still, strong performances elevate this film. Lola Campbell does a remarkable job as Georgie making her feisty, precocious, prematurely worldly and hard-nosed but with moving flashes of vulnerability. She’s creates a sympathetic character even though she’s often sullen and contemptuous and at one point violent toward another child. Harris Dickinson gives a surprisingly layered performance as Jason. Seemingly, a dodgy track-suited layabout with what one character describes as an ‘Eight Mile haircut’, he shows a touching if bumbling commitment to Georgie. Alin Uzun provides strong support as Ali but while he features quite prominently early in the film, by the end his story feels underdeveloped.
This is a film about a child’s welfare, so it’s pre-loaded with emotion and for any responsible adult viewer, a constant concern about Georgie’s safety and well-being. Accordingly, the film contains some sensitive moments but deftly avoids tear-jerking sentimentality.
Ultimately, the script feels a little light but while this film lacks the devastating emotional punch of something like last year’s The Quiet Girl, it still manages to subtly works its way under the skin and leaves us with memorable characters about whom we can’t help but care.
Nick’s rating: ***1/2
Genre: Drama/ Comedy.
Classification: PG.
Director(s): Charlotte Regan.
Release date: 27th Aug 2023.
Running time: 84 mins.
Reviewer: Nick Gardener can be heard on “Built For Speed” every Friday night from 8-10pm on 88.3 Southern FM.