Um Pai Para Minha Filha

SCRAPPER has so much potential but unfortunately quickly falls apart.

What Worked: The characters were authentic and grounded and the acting was strong. Some of the magical realism was done well. There was heart. The way the characters in Georgie's neighborhood and life are explored is creative, as is the use of color. I also appreciated that even though Georgie had a hearing aid, it was just part of her world and never really spoken about. It just was normalised.

What didn't work: The story was trying too hard to pull at your heartstrings and often took itself too seriously. Not much happens, it's slow and repetitive and the whole story could have been told in a 25 minute short film with the same emotional arc. The emotional investment that is established in the prologue is promising but it then you're living in that same space for what feels like a 2hr film (even though it was 84 minutes it felt like it never ended). The script wasn't tight and some plot points were left unanswered.

Overall it's definitely what you would expect a Sundance film to look and feel like (hence why Sundance is becoming more and more irrelevant and tone deaf).

If you wanna watch a great movie about poor white single-parent family, I much prefer THE FLORIDA PROJECT as it was more restrained in its request for your heartstrings and yet manages to tug at them harder. Watching THE FLORIDA PROJECT I was moved to cry, watching SCRAPPER I kept think wow, they're really wanting me to feel this certain way at this moment in the story, when will this be over?

This film presents a curious case where numerous individual elements seem mismatched and unlikely to blend well, yet, remarkably, they come together to create a cohesive and compelling whole. The synergy of these components remains somewhat of a mystery to me, but there's no denying that the end result is captivating. A significant part of this success can be attributed to the outstanding acting, which brings a level of authenticity and engagement that elevates the entire experience. In essence, despite its seemingly disparate parts, the film manages to work exceptionally well in a way that is both surprising and gratifying.

Saw this at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival

"Scrapper" is a film about Georgie, a dreamy 12-year-old girl, lives happily alone in her London flat, filling it with magic. Suddenly, her estranged father turns up and forces her to confront reality. Being director Charlotte Regan first feature, the film is strong.

Throughout, the presentation, camerawork, colors, soundtrack and setting is pretty colorful and professional. The main story is pretty simple and certain elements remained me a lot of The Florida Project. While this film does offer some good insights on the poor areas of the UK, the themes isn't as strong as I think it is.

The performances from the cast are pretty good and the characters were interesting to observe from start to end. The dialogue moments had some funny and clever words, although some felt really fake and not believable. "Scrapper" is a type of film that fees familiar and basic but the overall experience was pretty interesting as there is good humor and chemistry between.

Rating: B.

It's fair to say that life has taken quite a turn, since your mother passed away you've had to learn, how to fend, forage, sustain - hold the social and constrain, and then your dad walks in, and makes surprise return. At first it's somewhat awkward and annoying, if there's one thing that you're not then it is cloying, you do your best to shake him off, but he's persistent like a cough, but you try to understand, how he's deploying.

Two top drawer performance from Lola Campbell and Harris Dickinson make this a film worth exploring in the tradition of great British contemporary independent filmmaking.

Lola Campbell carries this movie as Georgie. She is such a good actress for her age. This is my first time seeing her in a movie and I'm hoping to see her in many more.

As for the rest of the movie, I think it has quite good depictions of how people deal with grief and loss. Georgie's dad in the movie has a particular good little arc and becomes very likeable by the end of the film.

Alin Uzum as Ally has some great comedic moments and lands all his jokes very well. There is also a great little comedic moment with Georgie and her dad in around the mid point of the movie which got a big laugh out of my audience.