Culture Interviews Cinema & Tv Film festivals Sundance London

Scrapper: On the red carpet with the cast and creatives at Sundance London 2023

Scrapper: On the red carpet with the cast and creatives at Sundance London 2023

Scrapper is the glorious, whimsical and heartfelt feature debut from Charlotte Regan (who began her career in the fashion and music video world), which received the World Cinema Dramatic Grand Jury Prize during Sundance and premiered in the UK on the opening night of Sundance London 2023. The story follows 12-year-old Georgie (newcomer Lola Campbell) who, after the death of her mother, is getting by alone off the back of her own resourcefulness, with the support of her mate, Ali (Alin Uzun) – wingman to her bike-stealing escapades and ploys to throw social workers off the scent. A spanner is thrown in the works when her long-estranged father, Jason (a bleach-haired Harris Dickinson), bulldozes into her life, returning from his job abroad selling club tickets in Ibiza.

Subverting expectations of the social realist genre with its creative approach to storytelling, this is a British working-class comedy-drama that pops with colour and dazzles with its imagination. Its playful elements interspersed through the drama work to more closely capture the feeling of looking at life through the eyes of a kid, drawing the audience into Georgie’s world, from talking spiders to wondering aloud if her father could be a vampire. Further, the father-daughter relationship explored is almost one of roles reversed: Georgie old beyond her years and Jason a bona fide man-child, but somewhere in the middle they can find connection and realise how much they need each other. Regan’s genius pairing of new-to-cinema Campbell with Dickinson is one that more than pays off, with a charming chemistry bubbling between them throughout, not dissimilar to that found in the smash-hit indie Aftersun, with the duo even ad-libbing at the end of almost every scene. Despite what’s ostensibly a tough subject in a bleak setting, the film captures the beauty of community and joy of making memories with family in even the darkest of places.

The Upcoming hit the red carpet for the movie’s premiere and chatted to Dickinson about how Scrapper breaks the stereotypes of its genre, how he channeled his inner kid to play Jason (whose understanding of life is tested when he’s faced with his responsibilities), and the hopeful energy and spirit the film has.

We also spoke to the filmmaker and her young star, Lola Campbell, about the highlights of working together on-set with Dickinson – particularly as this is Campbell’s first film – and the uplifting message at the heart of Scrapper.

 

Cinematographer Molly Manning Walker (who also recently brought her directorial feature debut, How to Have Sex, to Cannes Film Festival) spoke about how they approached the less traditional aspects of the production to bring Georgie’s world to life.

Sarah Bradbury

Scrapper is released in select cinemas on 25th August 2023.

For further information about Sundance London 2023 visit the festival’s website here.

Read more reviews from the festival here.

Watch the trailer for Scrapper here:

More in Cinema & Tv

Paolo Sorrentino’s La Grazia to open Venice Film Festival 2025

The editorial unit

“Letting us pass this torch on to the kids just makes me reflect on how crazy this experience has been”: Milo Manheim, Meg Donnelly, Freya Skye and Malachi Barton on Zombies 4: Dawn of the Vampires

Christina Yang

Miley Cyrus unveils visual album Something Beautiful, streaming on Disney+ this July

The editorial unit

Ryan Gosling goes interstellar in Project Hail Mary, the latest sci-fi epic from the team behind The Martian and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

The editorial unit

Trailer drops for Roofman, Derek Cianfrance’s stranger-than-fiction crime drama starring Channing Tatum and Kirsten Dunst

The editorial unit

Dave Franco and Alison Brie face a rural nightmare in Michael Shanks’s upcoming horror film

The editorial unit

Jurassic World: Rebirth

Guy Lambert

Mediterrane Film Festival 2025: The Theft of the Caravaggio

Mae Trumata

Olivia Rodrigo at BST Hyde Park

Katherine Parry