--- title: "Scrapper" year: 2023 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/scrapper" fi1m_id: "scrapper" imdb_id: "tt8649252" tmdb_id: 935906 wikidata_id: "Q115631571" fi1m_score: 72 critics_score: 73 critics_reviews: 19 published: "2026-09-10" updated: "2026-09-18T08:38:05.453459+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Scrapper (2023) Directed by Charlotte Regan · 1h 24m · MPA NR · Comedy, Drama ## Identity Scrapper - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/scrapper - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** scrapper - **IMDb ID:** tt8649252 - **TMDB ID:** 935906 - **Wikidata ID:** Q115631571 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8649252/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/935906, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q115631571 **Fi1m score: 72** · Critics 73 from 19 reviews *In a sentence:* The spiders talk, the neighbours gossip to camera and the twelve-year-old is the only adult on the estate > Charlotte Regan’s first feature is small, bright and easy to like, with a remarkable child at its centre and a father who has some growing up to do. The whimsy occasionally gets in the way, but the two of them carry it. ## Synopsis Georgie is twelve and lives alone in a council house in east London. Her mother has died, and she has told no one who might do something about it: social services get a phone call from an uncle who does not exist, and the rent is covered by the bikes she steals with her friend Ali and sells on. She has a routine, a locked room upstairs she is slowly filling with scrap, and no interest in help. Then Jason climbs over the back fence. He is her father, he left before she was born, and he has come to see whether she is all right. She would like him to leave. He stays. Charlotte Regan writes and directs; Lola Campbell and Harris Dickinson lead. ## Review Charlotte Regan’s first feature is about a twelve-year-old who has decided she does not need anybody. Georgie (Lola Campbell) lives alone in a council house in east London after her mother’s death, steals bikes with her friend Ali (Alin Uzun) to keep the rent paid, and fends off social services with a recording of an uncle who does not exist. Then a man in a tracksuit climbs over the back fence. This is Jason (Harris Dickinson), the father who left before she was born, and the film is the two of them working out whether they want each other. It is small, bright, 84 minutes long and easy to like, and we liked it. Campbell had not acted before and you would not guess. She plays Georgie with her chin up and her arms folded, a child who has taught herself to talk like a landlord, and she is funniest when she is being most serious. Asked who is looking after her, she names an uncle called Winston Churchill and does not blink. Dickinson, bleached and boyish, plays Jason as a man who has never been in charge of anything and is alarmed to discover he would like to be. He is good at being told off by a child. Regan’s script keeps their scenes short and lets them bicker in the kitchen like people who have known each other for years rather than days. Molly Manning Walker shoots the estate in flat summer light with plenty of sky, and Elena Muntoni has the terraces painted in sherbet pinks and yellows, so the place looks like something a child has coloured in rather than the grey estate British films usually give us. Oliver Cronk keeps Georgie in an oversized football shirt and puts Jason in a tracksuit that is trying a little too hard. Spiders in the corners of rooms discuss her in subtitles. Neighbours talk to camera in pairs about what they make of her. Billy Sneddon and Matteo Bini cut these interruptions in fast and get out again, and Patrick Jonsson’s score stays light and plucked and never tells us when to cry. The whimsy is the film’s signature and also where it wobbles. The spiders are funny for exactly as long as they should be. The talking neighbours are funny the first time and then start to look like a director who does not trust a scene to stand up on its own. Around the middle the film runs short of things for Georgie and Jason to do together and sends them off to do quirky things instead, and for ten minutes or so it coasts. A few critics have found all this grating, and we can see why, though we think they miss how much of it is Georgie’s own way of looking rather than Regan showing off. We laughed at Winston Churchill, out loud, and again when Jason tries to explain to Georgie what a dad is for and finds he does not know. And there is that room upstairs that Georgie keeps locked and is slowly filling with scrap. What she is building in there we will not describe, but when the film finally shows us it caught us harder than the sunny surface had led us to expect, and Campbell plays the moment without a line. It is the one place the film’s grief and its playfulness are in the same shot. The story goes where stories about absent fathers go. Anyone who has seen one will not be surprised by the destination, though they may be surprised by how gently the film arrives there and by how little it asks Jason to earn along the way. Regan is kinder to him than we might have been. That fits a film told from a child’s height, but it leaves the last stretch feeling lighter than the material underneath it. Ken Loach’s [*Kes*](https://film.one/film/kes) (1969) is the film British stories about working-class children still get measured against, and it was made in grey. Regan has looked at the same kind of street and decided it can be pink without the rent getting any easier to pay. Take a child of about Georgie’s age if you have one, or a parent if you still have one. It carries a 12A and runs 84 minutes, and it does not waste any of them. *Fi1m score 72, published 10 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics like Scrapper, and nearly all of them, including the few who do not, agree on why it works when it does: Lola Campbell, a newcomer, and Harris Dickinson as the father who turns up uninvited, and the ease between them. Praise for Regan’s debut clusters around its colour and invention, the way it lets a twelve-year-old’s imagination interrupt a working-class setting, and around a grief story that stays light without going soft. The reservations gather in the same place. Several reviews find the whimsy twee or too cute, and the comparisons to Wes Anderson are not always meant kindly. The spread is wider than the score suggests. Slant Magazine argues the clash of realism and quirk undermines the film’s ideas about class and loss; The Hollywood Reporter finds the quirk strained and often irritating; The Times says the film never lands the emotional blow it reaches for. A few others simply find the errant-father story familiar. ## Straight answers **Is Scrapper worth watching?** *Scrapper* is worth watching for anyone who likes small British comedies with a sharp child at the centre, and we scored it 72. Lola Campbell, who had never acted before, and Harris Dickinson carry it, though the talking spiders and gossiping neighbours wear thin and the middle coasts for ten minutes. It runs 84 minutes and wastes none of them. **How long is Scrapper, and what is it rated?** *Scrapper* runs 1h 24m and is rated NR by the MPA in the US. It is a comedy and drama film. **Where can I watch Scrapper in the US?** *Scrapper* is streaming on The Roku Channel and Amazon Prime Video in the US, and it is also available to rent from Amazon Prime Video from $2.99. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service. **How violent or frightening is Scrapper, and is it suitable for children?** *Scrapper* carries a UK 12A and is neither violent nor frightening; the nearest it gets to peril is a twelve-year-old stealing bikes and lying to social services. Its weight is grief, since Georgie's mother has died and she is living alone, and one late scene lands harder than the sunny surface suggests. We would take a child of about Georgie's age. **How does Scrapper compare to Kes?** *Scrapper* and [*Kes*](https://film.one/film/kes) both watch a working-class child from the child's own height, but Regan paints the estate in sherbet pinks where Loach kept his grey, and she is far kinder to the adults. *Kes* is the harder, more bruising film and the one we would send a stranger to first; *Scrapper* is the lighter, funnier one, and easier to share with a child. **What should I watch after Scrapper?** After *Scrapper*, try [*Kes*](https://film.one/film/kes) (1969, Fi1m 88): Loach’s boy and his kestrel; the grey original every estate childhood answers to. Then [*Paper Moon*](https://film.one/film/paper-moon) (1973, Fi1m 86): Bogdanovich’s con man and the small girl who is better at his job than he is; and [*Nobody Knows*](https://film.one/film/nobody-knows) (2004, Fi1m 87): Kore-eda’s children raise themselves in a Tokyo flat; quieter, sadder, no spiders. ### Reviews we read (25) - **The i Paper**, Christina Newland (90/100, inferred): The Sundance breakout is a lean, vivid working-class drama that balances social realism with imagination and low-key humour. It delivers a heart-piercing father-daughter story full of loving detail and gruff emotion. [Read](https://inews.co.uk/culture/film/scrapper-review-believe-hype-british-drama-wonderful-2569553) - **Empire**, Ella Kemp (85/100, inferred): The debut feature is a colourful, hopeful story of grief and father-daughter reconnection that avoids kitchen-sink clichés. It balances humour and tenderness with emotional intelligence and wit. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/scrapper/) - **RogerEbert.com**, Sheila O'Malley (85/100, inferred): The critic praises the film's fluid tone blending whimsy, pathos, and humor in a story of a self-reliant girl and her immature father reconnecting after her mother's death. She highlights the authentic lead performances and inventive style as making for an impressive directorial debut. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/scrapper-movie-review-2023) - **Evening Standard**, Charlotte O'Sullivan (80/100, inferred): The film is a poignant Sundance prize-winner with dazzling performances from the young lead and director's fresh voice. It mixes whimsy and realism but has some twee and implausible moments. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/scrapper-movie-review-harris-dickinson-michael-fassbender-b1102510.html) - **Little White Lies**, Hannah Strong (4/4/4): The critic finds it a charming, effervescent story about grief, praising the delightful chemistry between Campbell and Dickinson. [Read](https://lwlies.com/reviews/scrapper) - **Radio Times**, Max Copeman (4/5): The critic calls it an impressive debut with a charming comedy-drama, eccentric script, playful direction and striking chemistry between leads. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-ld6jag/scrapper/) - **Sight and Sound** (80/100, inferred): The critic praises the film's charming romp and magical realism, highlighting the fun father-daughter criminal partnership and flights of fantasy that elevate the debut. [Read](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/scrapper-father-daughter-prove-fun-loving-criminals-this-charming-romp) - **Time Out**, Phil de Semlyen (4/5): The critic praises the warm, freewheeling comedy-drama with rascally energy, noting it proves working-class stories can be joyful. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/scrapper-2023) - **IndieWire**, Adam Solomons (75/100, inferred): The review praises the low-key but high-spirited debut as a wise British charmer about a seemingly orphaned girl and her delinquent father, highlighting its appealing father-daughter dynamic. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/scrapper-review-harris-dickinson-1234802580/) - **Screen Daily** (75/100, inferred): The critic describes it as stylistically bold and youthful, a picture packed with ideas and fizzing energy in an unconventional urban fairytale. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/scrapper-sundance-review/5178070.article) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, Leslie Felperin (40/100, inferred): The critic views the film as a sweet but strained bit of fluff that tries too hard to be quirky and funny, often becoming annoying, though it benefits from strong performances by Harris Dickinson and newcomer Lola Campbell. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/scrapper-review-harris-dickinson-1235306669/) - **Slant Magazine**, Steven Scaife (35/100, inferred): The critic sees the film as a baffling clash between kitchen-sink realism and twee indie dramedy that undermines its themes of grief and class with intrusive, ungrounded flights of fancy and generic scenes. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/scrapper-review-harris-dickinson/) - **Financial Times**, Jonathan Romney (★★★★☆): The engagingly scrappy debut has plenty going for it, with an astonishing performance from newcomer Lola Campbell and bolshie joyousness at its best. [Read](https://www.ft.com/content/1d976146-85a9-409a-ab07-e3dfeb4ab324) - **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw: The film offers a tender sweetness in its portrayal of a fragile father-daughter relationship, offset by visual dreaminess and warmth in the central performances. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/aug/19/scrapper-review-charlotte-regan-tender-portrait-of-a-girls-precarious-life) - **The New York Times**, Claire Shaffer (Critic's Pick): The review calls the debut feature whip-smart, centering a capable 12-year-old who navigates life alone until her estranged father arrives and disrupts her routine. It commends the strong newcomer performance and the film's blend of comedy and drama in their evolving relationship. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/23/movies/scrapper-review.html) - **The Times**, Kevin Maher (★★☆☆☆): The film fails to pack an emotional punch despite quirky sequences and the efforts of its lead actors, resulting in an underwhelming take on the errant-father formula. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/film/article/scrapper-review-underwhelming-errant-father-and-daughter-formula-3b728rfgr) - **Variety**, Guy Lodge: The critic describes it as a sweet, pastel-colored spin on British realism that benefits from Harris Dickinson's winning performance as a deadbeat dad. It notes the film's sunnier take on familiar territory but finds it occasionally too cute. [Read](https://variety.com/2023/film/reviews/scrapper-review-harris-dickinson-1235499144/) - **The Playlist**, Alani Vargas (B+): The critic finds the film endearing in its portrayal of a grieving daughter's bond with her long-lost father, praising the imaginative perspective and strong lead performances. They single out the mix of realistic scenes with vibrant, quippy imaginative bursts that illustrate the child's viewpoint. [Read](https://theplaylist.net/scrapper-review-harris-dickinson-stars-in-an-endearing-story-of-a-grieving-daughter-long-lost-father-sundance-20230125/) - **/Film**, Marshall Shaffer (8/10): The critic praises Regan's inventive direction that immerses viewers in the protagonist's imaginative world, highlighting the strong performances by Lola Campbell and Harris Dickinson in this father-daughter story. They single out the film's blend of whimsy and emotional depth as a standout. [Read](https://www.slashfilm.com/1373679/scrapper-review/) - **The Wrap**, Elizabeth Weitzman (80/100, inferred): The critic calls the film a lovely British drama about a grieving 12-year-old who believes she can raise herself and her estranged father who arrives to check on her. They praise Regan's empathetic direction and script, along with the standout performances of Harris Dickinson and newcomer Lola Campbell, while noting minor issues with exaggerated supporting characters. [Read](https://www.thewrap.com/scrapper-review-harris-dickinson/) - **Collider**, Therese Lacson (B-): The review calls it an uplifting if predictable feel-good story that benefits from strong lead chemistry and vibrant direction. The simplicity and charming performances make it effective despite lacking innovation. [Read](https://collider.com/scrapper-movie-review/) - **Deadline**, Damon Wise (65/100, inferred): The review portrays the film as a whimsical kitchen-sink drama dealing with grief, single parenting, and social care through candy-colored levity reminiscent of Wes Anderson. It praises the strong two-hander performances by Harris Dickinson and Lola Campbell but finds it occasionally flippant or baffling given the vulnerable subject matter. [Read](https://deadline.com/2023/01/sundance-review-charlotte-regan-scrapper-1235240585/) - **Eye for Film**, Jeremy Mathews (3/5): The critic notes the film's ambitious mix of social realism with whimsical elements inspired by Wes Anderson, commending the cast but finding some choices off-putting and the tone uneven. They single out the vibrant color palette and playful tone amid working-class hardships for praise. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/scrapper-2023-film-review-by-jeremy-mathews) - **The Skinny**, Stefania Sarrubba (★★★): Scrapper puts a joyous spin on working-class stories with a tender father-daughter dramedy that doesn't overstay its welcome. The movie's secret weapon is its leading duo, with effortless chemistry between Campbell and Dickinson finding levity and hope in unexpected places. [Read](https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/new-releases/scrapper-film-review) - **Paste**, Jacob Oller (6.1): The critic finds the father-daughter story familiar and overly conventional with little emotional specificity, though it hangs together as a brief debut. Dickinson's grounded performance stands out amid the twee elements and strong locations. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/sundance-2023/scrapper-review) ## Details - **Director:** Charlotte Regan - **Director:** Charlotte Regan - **Screenplay:** Charlotte Regan - **Cinematography:** Molly Manning Walker - **Editor:** Matteo Bini, Billy Sneddon - **Music:** Patrick Jonsson - **Production design:** Elena Muntoni - **Costume design:** Oliver Cronk - **Producer:** Theo Barrowclough - **Cast:** Lola Campbell as Georgie; Harris Dickinson as Jason; Alin Uzun as Ali; Laura Aikman as Kaye; Ambreen Razia as Zeph; Asheq Akhtar as Youseff; Olivia Brady as Vicky; Sam Buchanan as Henry - **Runtime:** 1h 24m - **Certificate (MPA):** NR - **Release (the US):** 25 August 2023 - **Genres:** Comedy, Drama - **Box office:** $1 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slyUJ1_eK4E ## Where to watch in the US - The Roku Channel: add-on, hd - Amazon Prime Video: add-on - Amazon Prime Video: rent $2.99, sd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $8.99, sd *Checked 2026-09-10.* Also available in: AU, BR, CA, CL, CO, ES, FR, GB, JP, MX, NL, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - European Film Academy Young Audience Award 2023: European Film Academy Young Audience Award (won) - Sundance Film Festival World Cinema Dramatic Grand Jury Prize 2023: Sundance Film Festival World Cinema Dramatic Grand Jury Prize (won) ## If you liked this - *Kes* (1969), Fi1m 88: Loach’s boy and his kestrel; the grey original every estate childhood answers to — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/kes.md) - *Paper Moon* (1973), Fi1m 86: Bogdanovich’s con man and the small girl who is better at his job than he is — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/paper-moon.md) - *Nobody Knows* (2004), Fi1m 87: Kore-eda’s children raise themselves in a Tokyo flat; quieter, sadder, no spiders — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/nobody-knows.md) - *Rocks* (2019): Sarah Gavron’s east London schoolgirl left holding her brother; the realist cousin - *Petite Maman* (2021), Fi1m 88: Céline Sciamma on grief and parents, told entirely at a child’s height — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/petite-maman.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/scrapper