The opening credits to Charlotte Regan’s Scrapper is a frenzied tableau of London kids participating in the act of youth at a public park: chasing each other around in party hats, doing pull-ups incorrectly at the playground to impress friends, petty crime performed by 12-year-old Georgie (Lola Campbell) and her friend Ali (Alin Uzun). The camera dashes between the kids like a surveillance camera gone haywire. Sometimes it’ll angle straight to the sky, as if it’s bemoaning to another faceless witness to say, “See this shit?” before scanning right back to the ground. This is all set to English rapper The Streets’ “Turn the Page.” Though the scene cuts off the song before it gets to one of the last lines — “I’ll show you the secrets, the sky, and birds / Actions speak louder than words” — there is an air of prophecy within this chaotic tapestry of lower-class London.
After the sudden death of her mother, Georgie lives alone in the apartment. Under the guise of a fictional uncle (“Lovely that she’s living with, uh, Winston Churchill”), Georgie scrapes by from the money she earns from selling stolen bicycles (although learning very quickly that paying rent is not as easy as it sounds). One day, her dad, Jason (Harris Dickinson), who resembles a sort of low-level grime rapper in the UK, arrives at her doorstep, ready to step in as a father after zero contact for years. Even though the lack of communication was decided by her mom, Georgie is immediately dismissive of his intentions. At this point of the film, we don’t know much about Jason, but we know that Georgie is the kind of kid who is tough, closed-off, and not afraid of telling others to bugger off. In knowing most movies about parent-kid conflict, we can predict that Jason will be there in the morning even when Georgie is resistant to his offerings of Chinese food or mumbled words of affection.
Still, like any film with a good heart, it’s worth a watch. Regan’s filmography, which has previously consisted of music videos and short films about family, is fascinated with the effort it takes to sustain a relationship. How does one try to be supportive of someone who doesn’t understand what unwavering support looks like, and how do we, the surveillance camera, get to the easy part where they’re both content with each other? Usually, films build as small acts of kindness overwhelmed by a grand gesture of unconditional love. However, while the standoffish uncle in The Quiet Girl might quietly leave a cookie for his niece as a form of apology, Scrapper uses defensiveness, short fuses and humor. When Georgie loses a tooth during dinner (“That’s not my fault,” Jason quickly says when the burnt garlic bread was thought to be the culprit), their dynamic is exemplified when she wakes up to Jason trying to place money under her pillow, accusing him of theft. Not understanding the concept of a tooth fairy or wanting to give Jason the benefit that good dads would get, Georgie finalizes the conversation: “I don’t want your money.” A loss for Jason, but he’ll try again.
Lola Campbell plays her character with a realistic amount of preteen toughness protecting a grieving vulnerability, which stays true to the character right up to the film’s emotional peak. Harris Dickinson does well to show that while their relationship as father and daughter is legally black and white, Jason’s experience with loss is not much further from Georgie’s From the moment he steps through the apartment, it’s clear that the two need each other, and that their push-and-pull chemistry is instantaneous. The details of their characters — Georgie donned in an oversized Dagenham Motors polo and Jason’s cropped bleached hair — makes them seem like they’re two-scene accomplices to an A-list London heist, which make the focus on these characters all the more fun and sincere.
There is legislature on what makes someone a parent, but the one characteristic that will always kick me in the heart is the resiliency to be the better person, no matter the damage that’s been dealt, in order to keep the relationship alive. Scrapper is a lot more lighthearted than the emotional focuses of this review, but watching people get up and try for each other — that’s how actions speak louder than words.
Scrapper
2023
dir. Charlotte Regan
84 min.
Screens 9/15-9/21 @ Brattle Theatre – click here for showtimes and ticket info
