SCRAPPER - Mark Reviews Movies

Scrapper, Kino Lorber

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Review by Mark Dujsik | August 24, 2023

For as rebellious and spirited as Georgie (Lola Campbell) is, the 12-year-old girl at the center of Scrapper is just hurting in a way that a kid her age shouldn't be. Her mother has died, and for several months, Georgie has convinced a couple of bored social service employees that she's living with her uncle. The uncle doesn't exist.

Yes, that means Georgie is living alone, taking care of herself, and doing a pretty decent, if wholly irresponsible, job at it. Writer/director Charlotte Regan's film lets this kid, who superficially appears to have grown up quickly in certain ways, be herself in equally reckless and vulnerable ways, and that approach prevents what could have been a sappy and manipulative story from becoming one.

Currently on break from school, most of Georgie's days are spent cleaning up the house, making sure that the way her late mother had things remains the same, and hanging out with her best friend Ali (Alin Uzun). The two spend a lot of time together—talking, playing around neighborhood, having regular sleepovers, stealing bikes to sell to a local off-the-books business. There's an early scene where Georgie convinces a young woman, whose bike the pair are getting ready to walk away with, that they're local volunteer inspectors, and if nothing else, you have to admire the girl's moxie.

The real story, though, emerges with the sudden, unexpected appearance of Jason (Harris Dickinson), Georgie's long-time absentee father, who has learned of the death of his daughter's mother and shows up to try to be the dad he hasn't been for almost the entirety of the girl's life. The two are so much alike, with Jason having survived all these years presumably by means similar to the ones Georgie is currently employing, that they can't help but clash. Plus, the girl—and rightfully so—can't trust that her father will stick around, and the father worries that maybe his absence was better for Georgie than his presence ever could be.

It's a straightforward and touching story, which makes some of the stylistic flourishes of Regan's debut feature (documentary-like interviews with people around the neighborhood, a bit about the inner thoughts of spiders in the house, and a locked-away metaphor for the depth of Georgie's grief) stick out as unnecessary. The heart of it, though, remains both thorny, because there is the possibility that these two won't be able to get past the lengthy gap in their relationship, and pure, because it ultimately is about a father learning how to be there for his daughter and a daughter figuring out that's the case.

Scrapper, then, is admirably simple, in spite of those quirks of style, and emotionally sincere, despite some of those on-the-nose bits, in its goals. The film succeeds at them because of the naturalistic performances of the two leads, a sense of honesty about who these characters are, and the thoughtful way the central bond develops.

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