Scrapper

Charlotte Regan: Scrapper (GB 2023) with Lola Campbell (Georgie) and Harris Dickinson (her father Jason).

Sisupussi

2023

Badass / Feel-Good / Humour / Coming-of-Age / Family Ties

Theme: Fuck It, I'm Young

Country: United Kingdom

Director: Charlotte Regan

Screenplay: Charlotte Regan

Starring: Lola Campbell, Alin Uzun, Cary Crankson, Carys Bowkett, Ambreen Razia

Production: Theo Barrowclough / BBC Films

Duration: 84 min

Rating: K12

Maxim 2, Love & Anarchy: Helsinki International Film Festival (HIFF), 23 Sep 2023

Maria Pirkkalainen-Barber (HIFF 2023): " Vapise Aftersun; Scrapper on tämän vuoden puhutuimpia brittielokuvia. Sundancen elokuvafestivaalin kansainvälisen sarjan pääpalkinnon voittanut kekseliäs draamakomedia isä-tytär-suhteesta saa Pohjoismaiden ensiesityksensä ansaitusti R&A-festivaalilla. "

" Charlotte Reganin debyyttielokuvassa Lontoon laitamilla yksin elävän 12-vuotiaan Georgien arkeen kuuluu pyörävarkauksia parhaan kaverin Alin kanssa sekä vitsailevia hämähäkkejä. Sosiaalityöntekijät pitää poissa kuviteltu setä, jonka nimi saa historian tuntevan elokuvateatterin ulvomaan naurusta. Georgien arki kuitenkin muuttuu, kun hänen nuori isänsä Jason saapuu Ibizalta tutustumaan tyttäreensä ensimmäistä kertaa. "

" Ken Loach, Wes Anderson ja Charlotte Wellsin Aftersun toimivat hyvinä vertauksina Scrapperille. Jo lyhytelokuvillaan muun muassa BAFTA-ehdokkaaksi, Sundanceen sekä Berliinin elokuvajuhlille valittu Regan on kuitenkin ennen kaikkea ainutlaatuinen ohjaajakyky. "

" Lupauksia on elokuva muutenkin täynnä. Jason-isää esittää Triangle of Sadness -tähti Harris Dickinson, ja Georgieta näyttelee ilmiömäinen Lola Campbell. Kuvaajana loistaa Molly Manning Walker, jonka esikoisohjaus How to Have Sex kohautti vastikään Cannesin elokuvajuhlilla. " Maria Pirkkalainen-Barber

Quoted by HIFF 2023: Hannah Strong: " Charlotte Regan has long been a promising talent on the shorts and music video circuit, with her film Standby nominated for a BAFTA in 2017. She makes the leap to features with Scrapper – a charming, effervescent story about grief set on a housing estate in East London that turns the kitchen sink genre on its head, crafting a brightly-coloured world of possibility and hope. " Hannah Strong, Little White Lies

Quoted by HIFF 2023: Guy Lodge: " Georgie, the suitably scrappy 12-year-old protagonist of Scrapper, is a near-professional bicycle thief. Expert at picking locks and making quick getaways, she steals the two-wheelers, fixes them up or strips them for parts, and sprays their reassembled frames with a new coat of paint before sending them on their way. Charlotte Regan, the freshman writer-director of this winsome British dramedy, knows a few things herself about making something new and shiny from pilfered parts. (…) "

" As Georgie, appealingly spunky newcomer Lola Campbell fits right in with this heightened blend of Ken Loach and Wes Anderson. Reeling off impudent dialogue with cheeky comic timing and a killer command of the withering eye-roll, she’s a natural, but a performer in every aspect. " Guy Lodge, Variety

Language: English

Subtitles: English

Distribution: Angel Films

Print source: Angel Films

Cinematography: Molly Manning Walker

Editing: Matteo Bini, Billy Sneddon

Music: Patrick Jonsson

Sound: Ben Baird

Production design: Elena Muntoni

Costume design: Oliver Cronk

AA: The director Charlotte Regan and her cinematographer Molly Manning Walker grant us many surprises by interpreting a subject that might be classic kitchen sink but is instead offered in a manner that is bright and witty.

The colours are glowing, the camera angles surprising, and offbeat touches include speaking spiders and a "Greek chorus" of skeptical neighbours who question the explanations of the resourceful 12-year Georgie. After the death of her mother she now reluctantly confronts her absentee father Jason, back from Ibiza to explain that he was too young to carry responsibility when Georgie was born.

The life-affirming attitude and the brisk touch in the narrative are not surface camouflage for a depressing reality. Jason and his daughter Georgie are asocial, and their grip on fundamental things such as responsibility, honesty and reliability is tenuous at best. Georgie is a junior delinquent and a quasi professional bicycle thief, and her father is not a great role model, either. But in their bonding there is an irrepressible life force, and the film's upbeat look is an expression of their capability of transcending the bad hand they have been dealt in society's ruthless game.

It is indeed rewarding to compare Scrapper, a story of a father and a 12 year old daughter, with Aftersun, a story of a father and a 11 year old daughter - in order to realize how utterly different the handling of a similar theme can be.