Tag: British cinema

Motherless girl shocked by dad’s sudden reappearance

Georgie (Lola Campbell) turns to petty crime with the help of her friend, Ali (Alin Uzun). (Photos courtesy of Kino Lorber)

By Richard Ades

Scrapper’s title is the perfect description of Georgie (Lola Campbell), a 12-year-old struggling to survive in a working-class suburb of London.

Having recently lost her mother and with no father in sight, the girl scrounges for money by stealing bikes with the help of her friend, Ali (Alin Uzun). She then tries to fence them to a local shop owner by arguing that soon everyone will want one because the Tour de France is imminent.

Even when Georgie and Ali are caught stealing by a bike’s owner, she manages to talk her way out of trouble by pretending they were just making sure it was mechanically sound. She also succeeds in keeping concerned social workers at bay by convincing them she’s living with an uncle rather than on her own.

As depicted by first-time actor Campbell and first-time writer-director Charlotte Regan, Georgie seems unfazed by anything that comes her way. That is, until a man named Jason (Harris Dickinson) shows up and claims to be her long-lost father. That sets off a wave of paranoid suspicions (Is he a vampire? Is he a gangster?), along with recriminations toward the parent she accuses of deserting her.

“At least he’s here now,” Ali argues, leading to a fallout with his mercurial friend.  

Jason (Harris Dickinson) tries to mend fences with Georgie (Lola Campbell), the daughter he never knew.

Will Jason stay around long enough to accept the parenting role he abandoned as a young man? Will the resentful and independent Georgie let her guard down long enough to let him try?

A situation like this seems guaranteed to generate pathos and sentimentality, but filmmaker Regan relies on quirky humor to avoid the former and to head off the latter as long as possible. Reportedly, she also relied heavily on improvisation, which explains why some scenes have a freewheeling quality.

Though the resulting film is a bit uneven, a winning cast keeps the story interesting. Uzun and Dickinson are fine as Georgie’s faithful friend and belatedly concerned father, while Campbell is irresistible as the girl who falls back on her ample wits to survive one of the worst losses a child can face.

Rating: 3½ stars (out of 5)

Scrapper (no MPAA rating) can be seen in select theaters and is scheduled to run Sept. 8-14 at Columbus’s Gateway Film Center.

Low-key reverie belies explosive title

Sam (Colin Firth, left) and Tusker (Stanley Tucci) stop for a roadside meal in Supernova. (Photo courtesy of Bleecker Street)

By Richard Ades

It’s a bit misleading that writer-director Harry Macqueen’s new movie is called Supernova.

In astronomy, a supernova occurs when a star comes to an explosive end. True, the flick is about the impending demise of a star of sorts, as Tusker (Stanley Tucci) is a successful novelist (and amateur astronomer) with an incurable illness. But Tusker suffers from premature dementia that promises to make him fade away, memory first, not erupt in a brilliant explosion.   

Essentially a road picture, Supernova is the low-key account of what is likely to be the final trip Tusker takes with his partner of 20 years, pianist Sam (Colin Firth). At Tusker’s request, they pile into their aged RV and set off for their favorite vacation spot, England’s beautiful Lake District. Also on the itinerary is a visit with members of Sam’s family and his first concert after an extended break from performing.  

All of this was planned by Tusker, as Sam would have preferred to stay home so he could better take care of his ailing friend. In fact, caring for Tusker is the only thing Sam wants to do, even if it means putting aside his own needs while Tusker wastes away. But Tusker’s pride and concern for his partner make that the scenario he fears the most.

This sets up arguments that continue throughout the film, ones that doubtless will resound with many aging couples, gay or straight. With Firth and Tucci expertly acting out their characters’ worries against the backdrop of Dick Pope’s cinematography and composer Keaton Henson’s tender score, the result is a melancholy reverie on love and mortality.

Unfortunately, the result is also a journey that is less emotionally involving than it could be. Considering all the talent involved, that’s even more puzzling than the title.

One possibility is that Macqueen doesn’t tell us enough about the characters’ past to appreciate just how much they’ve lost due to Tusker’s illness. “I want to be remembered for who I was and not for who I’m about to become,” Tusker says at one point. But we just don’t know who either he or Sam was except in the most general terms.

A related problem is that Macqueen’s dialogue is too present-oriented, and too plot-oriented—too “on the nose.” It zeroes in on Tusker and Sam’s current challenges so thoroughly that even pros like Tucci and Firth have trouble shading their lines with 20 years’ worth of intimacy.

Supernova does succeed in tackling a sad topic with tact and sensitivity. With a little more insight into the characters, it could have been truly stellar.   

Rating: 3 stars (out of 5)

Supernova (rated R) can be viewed at select theaters (including Columbus’s AMC Easton Town Center 30 and AMC Dublin Village 18) and is available beginning Feb. 16 on digital VOD.