A neglected kid’s fantasy world of independence changes forever when her deadbeat dad resurfaces. Stephen A Russell finds Scrapper to be a familiar narrative delivered with a delicate, oddball touch.
The sight of a row of pastel-hued, Barbie-esque council housing on a run-down estate in England signals that Charlotte Regan’s big-hearted feature debut punches somewhere between miserable realism and magical. In one of these terraces 12-year-old Georgie (Lola Campbell) maintains the fantasy of living with an invented uncle, following the death of her mother way too young.
A resourceful dynamo, she keeps the place nice, steals bikes to pay the bills and taps the local corner store dude to record parental platitudes, which she plays over the phone to easily hoodwinked social workers.
Sparkling newcomer Lola Campbell delicately balances Georgie’s no-nonsense approach to her Oliver Twist-like life, presenting a spiky carapace that’s unable to conceal elements of childlike wonder. Why, we wonder, is she building a tower of junk in her late mum’s empty bedroom?
Kicking a footy around with best mate Ali (cheekily endearing fellow newcomer Alin Uzun) while skiving off school, it feels like this is Lord of the Flies gone right. But of course it’s only a matter of time before the wheels come off. The sudden reappearance of Georgie’s estranged father (Triangle of Sadness star Harris Dickinson), who scrambles up the wall into an open window after Georgie slams the door in his face, isn’t exactly a white knight moment.
Campbell’s magnificent performance makes it look easy, holding her own against the always-excellent Dickinson. Their tit-for-tat strafing through old grudges is glorious, evoking the question of who exactly is the grown-up. If her gradual thawing to his sketchy presence, and his grudging reckoning with the consequences of his AWOL stint run just as you’d expect, then it’s a credit to Regan that she manages to imbue such a well-worn narrative with refreshing spunk. In a brilliantly light touch, no plot point is made of Georgie wearing a hearing aid: a subtly inclusive detail bolstering the film.
It’s a shame that Uzun, having made such a delightfully oddball mark on the opening act, disappears for too much of the piece. Sure, it’s vital that Scrapper keeps tight on the one-two punch of Georgie and her dad’s showdown, but he’s such a cracking presence, some of the best moments occurring when Ali and Georgie level about the reality of her situation. But this is a minor grumble. Regan’s golden debut, much like Campbell and Georgie, punches way above its weight.
