Scrapper

This is the year where the young people finally own British cinema. Between Aftersun and Rye Lane, and now Scrapper, the stories of young Brits navigating their tumultuous lives are being told by young directors who stuff their films with style and ambition. It’s just exciting to watch British independent cinema move away from its associations with slow, depressing social realism and evolve into an energetic exploration of, well, the same social issues, but at last through a modern lens.

Scrapper uses childhood imagination to be endlessly fun, with sitcom-style cutaways to observers – and harsh critics – of 12-year-old Georgie’s (Lola Campbell) troubled life living alone. When her absent father (Harris Dickinson) arrives unexpectedly to look after her, he seems just as young and as naïvely improvising-through-life as Georgie. Together, their bonding forms the heart of Scrapper and what starts off as a lightly comedic film quickly begins to make the tears well up.

Few films this year will have this much personality and charm, especially as its low-budget makes it feel intensely relatable and genuine. Seeing Britain with young eyes exposes its many flaws all-the-more than usual, but Scrapper ends on an optimistic note, as if to say we can get through this as long as we let people in.

Daniel Kallin