Scrapper Review

Plot: 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.

Film: Scrapper

Director: Charlotte Regan

Writers: Charlotte Regan 

Starring: Lola Campbell, Alin Uzun, Cary Crankson

Following the death of her mother, Twelve-year-old Georgie (Lola Campbell) has wound up living alone, lying to social services and cycling through the five stages of grief and trying to keep up with paying the rent so she can keep living life the way she did while her mum was still alive. Save for her friend Ali (Alin Uzun), Georgie has no one she can rely on in the world, that is until her estranged father Jason (Harris Dickinson) turns up out of the blue.

With a runtime of under an hour and a half you get a powerful insight into the experience of grief from the perspective of a scrappy young girl in an acting debut that will leave you in disbelief. Lola Campbell plays the role of Georgie, a strong-willed, firecracker, so capably and it’s her charisma as Georgie that makes this such a charming watch. 

The only downside to having such a short runtime, some may struggle to connect with the story. We don’t really go on a journey with Georgie and Jason, we only see a very small snapshot in time, during which they are still trying to navigate their relationship, we don’t see much in the way of progress. This film is the prelude to a much bigger story that we don’t get to see, which a shame because both Georgie and Jason are such compelling characters and I suspect these are roles that the actors will hold close to their heart. 

Harris Dickinson, while not yet a household name, is a face you’ll almost certainly recognise from one of several projects he’s been involved in the last couple of years including the Oscar nominated: Triangle of Sadness. He gives a realistic performance of a father who’s never had to be a parent and therefore ends up more like a big brother to Georgie, not exactly encouraging her most healthy outlets but still supporting her, nonetheless. It’s a rocky road to traverse but Jason and Georgie find things to bond over and eventually find a way to coexist which leads us to get the very poignant line; “Now that I know you, I can’t really not know you.”, in a scene that will no doubt leave you a little teary-eyed.

Scrapper is a comedy drama with all the heart and grit you’d expect from a film about making the most of the family you have, in the wake of grief and loss. The film deals with these adult themes but still keeps childhood imagination at its core, this is short film that really packs a punch.