Scrapper (2023 film)

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports that 93% of 101 critics have given the film a positive review, with an average rating of 7.4 out of 10. The website's consensus reads: "Like a cold treat on a hot day, Scrapper delivers two scoops of a sweet father-daughter dramedy best consumed when in need of a hug."[12] Metacritic gives the film a weighted average rating of 74 out of 100, based on 25 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[13]

Leslie Felperin in The Hollywood Reporter praised the performance of the leads, saying Dickinson "brings soulfulness to his rapscallion hitherto-absentee dad Jason, and total newcomer Lola Campbell, who brings natural comic timing to her turn as 12-year-old protagonist Georgie".[14] Damon Wise in Deadline Hollywood also mentioned the two leads, saying: "Scrapper is essentially a two-hander, since the fat-free plot is essentially the two getting to know each other and finding out whether they might even like each other… Campbell [is] something of a find, in a spiky role that brings a refreshing, unsentimental edge to this after-Aftersun story". Adding: "It's also good to see a kitchen-sink drama that doesn't take itself overly seriously, but the downside of that is that Scrapper sometimes seems a little flippant, given that, smart as she is, our plucky heroine is still a vulnerable child, all alone in the world. Still, it's early days in Regan's career, and it will be interesting to see what other kinds of stories and genres she has in her offbeat sights".[15]

Variety writer Guy Lodge highlighted the pastel coloured palette of the film, which "offers a sunnier take on familiar kitchen-sink territory, but is occasionally a touch too cute". He described the work of director of photography Molly Manning Walker as "vibrant, stock-shifting lensing" which "deftly negotiates the film's toggling impulses between social and magic realism". Production designer Elena Muntoni is said to strike "a clever balance between mundanely escapist decorative flourishes — like the cotton-candy clouds painted on a bedroom wall — and Georgie's actual flights of fantasy, like the scrap-metal tower she builds to the sky in a locked spare room. Reality eventually makes cruel but necessary intrusions in her life, and in Regan's film too: Both are stronger for the disruption."[16]