Film Review: Scrapper (2023)

Charlotte Regan's first long feature tells the story of 12-year-old Georgie living on her own after her mother passed away. She cheats the system by asking a clerk at her local shop to repeat sentences she then brilliantly plays between tracks while talking to social service on the phone. They think they are speaking to her uncle, Winston Churchill.

She lives in a grim unidentified area that could be the outskirts of London, Manchester, or Birmingham. Where it is doesn’t seem to be important. It’s a familiar British scenery.

Some characters speak straight to the camera like in a documentary, but more as a mockumentary, since these scenes are always funny and ironic.

Georgie, brilliantly played by Lola Campbell, believes she can live on her own. She spends her time watching her mother’s videos on her mobile, climbing a tower she built to reach the sky to meet her mother, and nicking bikes with her best mate Ali to sell to be turned into parts.

The story takes a turn when her dad Jason (Harris Dickinson), that she never met, shows up at her door. He looks scally and too young to be her dad.

Georgie gives him a hard time, but he stays and at some point, they develop a friendship. Georgie doesn’t want him to replace her mother, but she accepts him as a “mate”.

This could look like a very sad story, but the tone picked by Charlotte Regan is definitely with the intention to make viewers laugh. Charlotte’s background in rap videos shows up brilliantly with some visual effects and, of course, the film’s costume designs and dance moves.

Comparisons with Aftersun are inevitable, but the films have nothing in common besides the fact they both show a relationship between a teenage daughter and a father who was too young when he had her.

The fact of a teenager living on her own, paying rent and cheating the system seems a bit unbelievable, but the foster care system in the UK has its flaws. So, you end up asking yourself, would that be possible? But that’s not what the film is about. It’s about grief, survival and new chances for a teenage girl and a young father to grow as individuals by creating a real bond, while they have the adventure of their lives.