Scrapper

This will catch you off guard. Georgie (Lola Campbell) is a good kid dealing with a lot, the loss of her mum, she fends for herself, not always in the best way. She's house proud, misses her mum, deft at picking a lock, in inner city London, she runs a bike racket with her mate Ali (Alin Uzan). All highly illegal of course, but she's instantly likeable. She inhabits a world of slightly hyper real characters. It's gritty and deals with some heavy themes, but there's a lightness to the way this is delivered. Fending for herself, she pulls the wool over everyone's eyes, social services, school and her own. It's full of charm, which is just as well, as it's a big baggy in places early on, but it gets so much spot on that I'll easily forgive it. Grief is hard to portray, but this deals with it beautifully, whilst being genuinely heartwarming. Georgie lives in a West Ham shirt, unbeknownst than it once belonged to Jason (Harris Dickinson), her dad that turns up back on the scene after her mums death, much to Georgie's annoyance. She's wise beyond her years, Jason has his work cut out if he thinks he can just waltz back in. She doesn't trust him, doesn't really trust anyone but Ali, but she'll need to let her guard down if she's going to get on. It's an oddly sweet story. Well put together and acted with humbling honesty. It retains a sense of child like wonder, despite Georgie's persistence that at 12 years old she's got it sorted, she's a scrapper and this is fantastic.

Lola Campbell carries this movie as Georgie. She is such a good actress for her age. This is my first time seeing her in a movie and I'm hoping to see her in many more.

As for the rest of the movie, I think it has quite good depictions of how people deal with grief and loss. Georgie's dad in the movie has a particular good little arc and becomes very likeable by the end of the film.

Alin Uzum as Ally has some great comedic moments and lands all his jokes very well. There is also a great little comedic moment with Georgie and her dad in around the mid point of the movie which got a big laugh out of my audience.

It's fair to say that life has taken quite a turn, since your mother passed away you've had to learn, how to fend, forage, sustain - hold the social and constrain, and then your dad walks in, and makes surprise return. At first it's somewhat awkward and annoying, if there's one thing that you're not then it is cloying, you do your best to shake him off, but he's persistent like a cough, but you try to understand, how he's deploying.

Two top drawer performance from Lola Campbell and Harris Dickinson make this a film worth exploring in the tradition of great British contemporary independent filmmaking.

Saw this at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival

"Scrapper" is a film about Georgie, a dreamy 12-year-old girl, lives happily alone in her London flat, filling it with magic. Suddenly, her estranged father turns up and forces her to confront reality. Being director Charlotte Regan first feature, the film is strong.

Throughout, the presentation, camerawork, colors, soundtrack and setting is pretty colorful and professional. The main story is pretty simple and certain elements remained me a lot of The Florida Project. While this film does offer some good insights on the poor areas of the UK, the themes isn't as strong as I think it is.

The performances from the cast are pretty good and the characters were interesting to observe from start to end. The dialogue moments had some funny and clever words, although some felt really fake and not believable. "Scrapper" is a type of film that fees familiar and basic but the overall experience was pretty interesting as there is good humor and chemistry between.

Rating: B.

One of those low budget, British films that I like to catch has all the ingredients of the genre as we watch an independent 12 year old called Georgie reconnect with her estranged father. Jason who left for a new life in Ibiza.

The film has a little comedy element at times which breaks the mood of the film which can otherwise have become depressing and kitchen sink. However the performance of young actress Lola Campbell as Georgie is a delight.

Despite seemingly wearing the same football shirt throughout the film (joked upon in one scene) she brings this film to life as a 12 year old fighting the demons of her mother's passing and living (somehow) alone surviving by stealing cycles and cycle parts and selling them for whatever money she can earn.

The premise of the film has often been repeated but not in the way this film is handled. Be it the location, the characters and their actions or casting a streetwise kid of the street as Georgie. The screenplay does tug at the heart strings as you would expect as the film goes on. It has a pretty short running-time of only 84 minutes but it is a film I would make the effort to watch.

The director, Charlotte Regan makes her feature debut with this film. I will be looking out for future Regan work for sure.