Scrapper

Harris Dickinson and Lola Campbell

Charlotte Regan's is a vital and imaginative working class drama. Twelve year old Georgie (Lola Campbell) lives in a project in Chigwell, just northeast of London. An orphan when we meet her, Georgie is able to pawn off an imaginary uncle as her guardian and scrounges a living as a bicycle thief with her pal, Ali (Alin Uzun). Georgie's criminal activities link her with the roots of neorealism, specifically with Vittorio De Sica's Bicycle Thieves, as does Ms. Regan's general approach, That said, Georgie has little in common with the sad sack duo in Bicycle Thieves. She displays a scrappiness, one meaning of the title, and a joie de vivre that brings to mind Dickens' Artful Dodger. 

In quieter moments, she pines for her mother watching old videos of them together on their phone. She has a void in her life and, suddenly, the father she has never met shows up unannounced. Her Dad, Jason (Harris Dickinson), scarcely seems more responsible or mature than his daughter. Soon, he is accompanying Georgie on her petty criminal rounds. Ali warms to him, but Georgie is wary. Her reconciliation with Jason is predictable, but the acting is so top drawer that I didn't care. Harris Dickinson's talent has already been on display, but Regan also draws strong performances from first timers Campbell and Uzun.

There is also a strain of magical realism that runs through Scrapper that leavens some of the grit of the narrative. Regan and cinematographer Molly Manning Walker heighten the pastel hues of the colors, giving the film more of a storybook feel rather than a realistic one. Regan cuts, in a different aspect ratio, to choral asides from Georgie's social workers, school mates, neighbors, and partners in crime. This asides are chiefly comic in tone. Finally, there is the tower of scrap that Georgie has assembled in one room of her apartment. Ostensibly a tower to reach her mother up in heaven, this motif gives us an insight into the dissociative aspects of Georgie's mental state. Regan uses whip pans and jump cuts so the audience can grok Georgie's psychic dislocation. Not all of the techniques Regan utilizes work, but this is the most promising first feature of 2023.