Georgie (Lola Campbell), the motormouthed hero of Charlotte Regan’s feature debut, Scrapper, is one of those kids that really flummoxes the adult brain. She’s cute as a button, but speaks with the conspiratorial confidence of a used car salesman. She steals bikes with her best friend and accomplice, Ali (Alin Uzun), and has somehow convinced social services that, since her mother’s death, she’s been under the guardianship of her extremely busy and uncommunicative uncle, “Winston Churchill”. Of course, she’s really on her own. Georgie doesn’t need adult supervision, thank you very much. She can take care of herself.
She’s a pint-sized huckster who’s going nowhere and yet is somehow still on the run. And it’s that electric presence – as written by Regan and enthusiastically performed by Campbell – that transforms Scrapper into a joyous, boisterous debut. There’s something in here that was made to be championed. It’s a candy-coloured reflection of Regan’s own memories of growing up working class in London, and offers a specific brand of escapism that can only come from the immediacy and innocence of a child’s POV. It’s confrontational when it comes to matters of loss and abandonment, but also shields us from the knowledge that those wounds may heal, but not without leaving behind scars.
