Scrapper (2023)

Many years ago (nearly three) I used to have a proper job as a social work researcher and educator. Whilst in that role I would often find myself watching films and reading books and thinking – should I recommend this to the students? It has been a glorious release not to think like that anymore.

I watch films, read books, go to theatre and it is gloriously, selfishly all about me. Bliss.

And then a film like Scrapper (2023) comes along and I find myself wondering should I recommend this to students?

Before I answer that let’s just outline the film.

Georgie is a plucky, resourceful young girl who at 12 years old has just lost her mum. She has her best friend Ali. And a plan to keep social services from her door. Then, over the back fence, Jason arrives – her hitherto absent Dad.

I’ve sat through many British plucky underdog films. But that’s not quite what this is. It is a scrappy, bitty tale of a vulnerable girl who needs someone, however imperfect, to tether her to the world around her. It is reminiscent of Tatum O’Neal in Paper Moon or Jodie Foster in Candle Shoe – tomboys who get to talk tough and sassy and break the law.

It is a gritty kitchen sink drama, but with a pastel colour palette, like a tube of refreshers or a Wham bar wrapper. The cinematography is playful.

The film sits somewhere between social realism and quirky agit-prop. It cuts quickly between scenes. People talk to camera. And when people run the screen blurs with movement like a TikTok prankster getting caught. It is both real and improbable. It is begging for change and for everything to stay the same. It has a tough heart, but the comedy fizzes between Georgie, Ali and Jason.

As I watched it, I laughed, I clutched my chest and I cried. I just wanted someone to give Georgie the hug she so clearly needed. And to ask her - really, truly ask her – are you o.k.?

Jason isn’t there yet. He is a facsimile of a grown up. All the pieces are there, but they are not put together right. He has to be told to ask Georgie questions.

So, everyone who likes a tale told with heart should see the film.

I’m not alone in this opinion. At the Sundance Film Festival it won the Grand Jury prize for the World Cinema Dramatic Competition. Many critics have praised the central performances – Lola Campbell’s debut is assured and uncannily funny – Harris Dickson has a perfectly spiky edge in his portrayal of forced maturity.

But should social work students see it?

I worry that if I suggest that social workers should see it, that the film will be seen as worthy, when it is first and foremost entertaining and funny.

The depiction of social work is unflattering, a service stretched to incompetence and cursory enquiries.

But the question the film poses to social work students is would Georgie be any better off in foster care or state care? She definitely thinks not. The adults around her, who must know she is on her own, think not. Resilient though Georgie is – she is also a vulnerable 12 year old girl on her own. It is a fantastical examination of the reality of being disconnected.

The film is a starting point to discuss those over-used words in social work education: “resilience” and “vulnerability”. I know they have their uses, but I grew to hate them.

Resilience seemed to take on a meaning that denied anyone the opportunity to feel vulnerable. And vulnerable became to mean that some people aren’t resilient enough. We can’t win.

But in Scrapper – a scrappy, piecemeal existence shows that vulnerability and resilience co-exist. Like social work practice, the film is about how we stumble about in the messy aftermath of loss with humanity, creativity and imagination. Scrapper is asking for the space and time to stop the overwhelm of grief.

It asks – Hey Georgie – are you o.k.?

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