September 15, 2023
FILM: SCRAPPER
DIRECTED BY: CARLOTTE REGAN
STARRING: LOLA CAMPBELL, HARRIS DICKINSON, ALIN UZUN
RATING: 3 out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
When we first meet 12-year old Georgie in the film Scrapper she is cleaning her house and checking off one of the five stages of grief she has posted on a wall. Based on this, she seems to be entering into the stage of depression. We don’t find out immediately who she is grieving but when her father Jason shows up suddenly to look after her, we find out that Georgie’s mother has passed away. Jason has not been part of their life for most of those twelve years. All of this sets up a low-key but effective film about loss and responsibility.
Georgie is played by first time film actress Lola Campbell. She’s tough and very articulate. Her best friend is Ali, who lives in the same colorfully painted but fairly low income apartment complex. Georgie and Ali have been making money by selling bikes they’ve stolen throughout the neighborhood. Georgie doesn’t have any other friends and spends her alone time in a locked room staring up at a mysterious display she’s created out of some of those bike parts. She’s surviving as best as can be expected given her circumstances.
Jason sports a dyed buzz cut that reminds Georgie of Eminem in the film 8 Mile. The actor who plays him, Harris Dickinson, is most recently known for his lead role in the Oscar-nominated film Triangle of Sadness. He is strikingly different here both in attitude and demeanor but is handsome enough to suggest why his character and Georgie’s mother might have gotten together at such a young age to begin with. Jason is just as mischievous as Georgie but he’s ready to take some responsibility for the daughter he abandoned so many years earlier.
Charlotte Regan’s script and the direction of this film do a nice job of capturing this turning point in the relationship between the characters. There’s an appropriate cloudy, oppressive feel to the environment which captures the melancholy associated with both of them. Yet, she also laces the story with subtle humor which keeps the film from being overly maudlin. Both Campbell and Dickinson have some great one-liners that provide levity and humanity to the narrative.
There are a few elements here though that don’t quite add up to much though, such as other characters directly addressing the audience and informing us who Georgie is and what her life has been like. These scenes are sparse and brought into the film at inconsistent intervals. The girls from Georgie’s school, for instance, tell us about how much of an outcast Georgie is. Initially, such scenes suggest that the film may be more whimsical than it is. They provide us with some additional exposition but aren’t used enough to make their presence in the film convincing. There’s also a couple of spiders in Georgie’s home that occasionally speak to us about what is happening around her. But again, these don’t appear enough in the film to make their inclusion essential. This would have been a much different and lighter film had these elements been enhanced.
As is, Scrapper is still an effective film about dealing with grief and taking responsibility. It also does a nice job of creating the slowly developing relationship between estranged daughter and father Georgie and Jason. They are getting to know one another after considerable lost time and becoming a unit that they never had but surely needed all of this time.
Scrapper opens today at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago.
FILM: SCRAPPER
DIRECTED BY: CARLOTTE REGAN
STARRING: LOLA CAMPBELL, HARRIS DICKINSON, ALIN UZUN
RATING: 3 out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
When we first meet 12-year old Georgie in the film Scrapper she is cleaning her house and checking off one of the five stages of grief she has posted on a wall. Based on this, she seems to be entering into the stage of depression. We don’t find out immediately who she is grieving but when her father Jason shows up suddenly to look after her, we find out that Georgie’s mother has passed away. Jason has not been part of their life for most of those twelve years. All of this sets up a low-key but effective film about loss and responsibility.
Georgie is played by first time film actress Lola Campbell. She’s tough and very articulate. Her best friend is Ali, who lives in the same colorfully painted but fairly low income apartment complex. Georgie and Ali have been making money by selling bikes they’ve stolen throughout the neighborhood. Georgie doesn’t have any other friends and spends her alone time in a locked room staring up at a mysterious display she’s created out of some of those bike parts. She’s surviving as best as can be expected given her circumstances.
Jason sports a dyed buzz cut that reminds Georgie of Eminem in the film 8 Mile. The actor who plays him, Harris Dickinson, is most recently known for his lead role in the Oscar-nominated film Triangle of Sadness. He is strikingly different here both in attitude and demeanor but is handsome enough to suggest why his character and Georgie’s mother might have gotten together at such a young age to begin with. Jason is just as mischievous as Georgie but he’s ready to take some responsibility for the daughter he abandoned so many years earlier.
Charlotte Regan’s script and the direction of this film do a nice job of capturing this turning point in the relationship between the characters. There’s an appropriate cloudy, oppressive feel to the environment which captures the melancholy associated with both of them. Yet, she also laces the story with subtle humor which keeps the film from being overly maudlin. Both Campbell and Dickinson have some great one-liners that provide levity and humanity to the narrative.
There are a few elements here though that don’t quite add up to much though, such as other characters directly addressing the audience and informing us who Georgie is and what her life has been like. These scenes are sparse and brought into the film at inconsistent intervals. The girls from Georgie’s school, for instance, tell us about how much of an outcast Georgie is. Initially, such scenes suggest that the film may be more whimsical than it is. They provide us with some additional exposition but aren’t used enough to make their presence in the film convincing. There’s also a couple of spiders in Georgie’s home that occasionally speak to us about what is happening around her. But again, these don’t appear enough in the film to make their inclusion essential. This would have been a much different and lighter film had these elements been enhanced.
As is, Scrapper is still an effective film about dealing with grief and taking responsibility. It also does a nice job of creating the slowly developing relationship between estranged daughter and father Georgie and Jason. They are getting to know one another after considerable lost time and becoming a unit that they never had but surely needed all of this time.
Scrapper opens today at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago.