Christ, I’ve not posted here since August 13th. That’s almost two months to the day. Not that anyone will have noticed really, but it’s with good reason that I’ve been absent from writing my reviews: I moved house! Anyone who has ever moved their entire life from one place to another knows that it’s so time and energy-consuming that you genuinely have no freedom to focus on anything else. So now we’re settled, my partner and I may finally have time to unwind and get back to doing some of the things that we enjoy. Yippee!
A whopping two months ago, we went to a secret screening at our local Odeon. Knowing relatively little about what it was going to be (we usually figure out what the movie is going to be well in advance), as we sat down to watch, we found out that it was a little indie British film titled Scrapper.
Rooted in realism and the essence of what it’s like to live and grow up in England, Scrapper tells the story of a 12 year old girl who has lived alone in a flat since her mother died. Although she’s insistent that she can take care of herself with a little help from her best friend Ali, there are some cracks starting to form. Enter her long lost father…
This was possibly the most emotional I’ve felt in a cinema so far this year. And I saw Oppenheimer. Not least because this was a full-on surprise in every sense of the word, so I had no idea what I was getting myself in for.
Honestly, I cannot stress how little we knew about this movie before going into the screening. What I got was a whirlwind rollercoaster of emotions, but what struck me the most was how funny it was. Whilst it’s definitely quintessentially British humour, I laughed multiple times throughout and that was wholly unexpected. (Without spoiling it, there’s a scene at a train station that had the whole audience giggling. Loudly. And it was even better because there was barely empty seat.)
Basically, think of this movie as Aftersun – with similar themes of death and depression, complete with a father/daughter relationship – but much, much happier. Although it’s absolutely not always a laugh riot, this film is pretty much Aftersun’s wholesome little brother and it was just a lovely way to spend an evening. Having had (a lot of) time to reflect on it, I’d actually love to see it again.
Now it would be absolutely criminal not to mention the new star at the forefront of the entire thing: Lola Campbell. I saw another review that gave Scrapper two(!) stars with nothing but some flippant comment about how dreadful she was. Ignore that bullshit. Campbell is phenomenal in her debut. Though Harris Dickinson is brilliant, she is what will keep you invested. Charisma for days, there’s no doubt about that. She’s flawlessly funny too – her comic timing is insane for a girl so young. I’m unsure where that critic was from, but the only explanation I can think of is that they were not British. If they were, they’d have understood the brilliance of her humour and know that that’s exactly what kids are like over here.
To round it all up, this stupid film made me cry at the end. A happy cry, but still. There are flaws, to be sure, and the pacing isn’t always great, but this might just be 2023’s indie darling.
Scrapper is currently in between cinema screenings and streaming services in the UK – let’s hope it becomes available soon!
TQR Category Ratings:
Performance: 4
Cinematography: 4
Soundtrack: 3
Costume & Set Design: 4
Plot: 4
Overall Enjoyability Rating: 4*
*I have no idea what happened to my little Q graphic, so I guess it’s just numbers from now on!
The Quayside Review 