The tricky father-daughter pairing at the centre of Charlotte Regan’s surefooted debut feature marks Scrapper as the poppier, knockabout cousin of last year’s Aftersun. In common with Charlotte Wells’s award-winning film, this drama pitches a knowing pre-adolescent against an uncertain parent. But the tone, colours and flights of fancy make Scrapper lighter and sparkier viewing.
Georgie (the newcomer Lola Campbell) is a 12-year-old girl crossing through the stages of grief with a fat marker since the death of her mother. Citing “Winston Churchill” as her primary caregiver, she has evaded the authorities and spends her days stealing and fencing bicycles with her best pal, Ali (Alin Uzun, excellent) and kicking around their multicoloured housing estate.
She is not impressed when her estranged dad, Jason (Harris Dickenson, fresh from Triangle of Sadness), returns from Spain intent on being part of Georgie’s life. Jason, who aids and abets Georgie’s thieving, is hardly a role model. And Georgie stands by the film’s opening gambit: “I can look after myself, thanks.”
Her irrational games and occasionally violent outbursts, including a bruising encounter with her girlie rival Layla (Freya Bell), signal that Georgie is not as grown up as she supposes.
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The script can feel by the numbers – Ali conveniently disappears on holiday just as Jason arrives – but there are welcome narrative innovations, including local teens functioning as a Greek chorus. The identical triplets Ayokunle Oyesanwo, Ayobami Oyesanwo and Ayooluwa Oyesanwo do great work in this respect.
Lively, fluid camerawork by Molly Manning Walker – who recently won Un Certain Regard at Cannes with her directorial debut, How to Have Sex – chimes with the lovely two-step between Campbell and Dickenson. As plucky as the title suggests.
