SCRAP is intensely dramatic and infused with an uniquely comedic swagger throughout the film. I don’t care what other reviewers may be saying: SCRAP also has a surrealistic feel throughout the 115 minutes of running time and it’s truly rhapsodic.
Beth – played vivaciously with dazzling virtuosity by Vivian Kerr – is barely scrapping by. Picture courtesy of A Season of Rain Production Company
She is a single mom living in L.A. and going through a hellacious period in her life. The film opens with us seeing her asleep in her car because she can’t pay rent. She was laid off from a well-paying job and she and her young daughter were subsequently evicted. That’s one of the reasons for her unexpected squalor but there are others that viewers will discover.
Beth decides that she must keep up appearances that things are good while she searches for that dream job worthy of her talents as well as soothes her self-esteem, which is taking a beating.
Also, the dream job has to be financially sound so that she can take of her young daughter who usually is “orphaned” at the home of her mom’s brother while mom is struggling to get her act together. Beth would die if her brother knew how destitute she was and she uses extravagant, hyperbolic and farfetched explanations to keep up the appearances.
Brother and Sister. Courtesy of A Season of Rain Production Company
Her pretentious flair, nevertheless, comes at great cost because she also must engage in self-deceit and self-dishonesty that she relies on to keep up her ruse. The seamless vignettes of her extravagant, hyperbolic and farfetched explanations – are cinematically priceless and are some of the major reasons SCRAP is a gem of a movie.
{Hint: Another major snag is that the father of Beth’s daughter – he fled fatherhood just as his daughter was born – announces that he wants to get back together and be directly involved in his daughter’s life. And he is persuasive. As soon as he “gets in” he wants out because of fear. Then he wants in because of guilty. Then he wants out.The plot is filled with surprises and twists and turns.}
SCRAP Screenings at the Phoenix Film Festival
Friday, March 31st, 2023 – 2:25 pm
Saturday, April 1st, 2023 – 4:35 pm
Sunday, April 2nd, 2023 – 4:40 pm
(Harkins Scottsdale 101 Theater)
Courtesy A Season of Rain Production Company
Beth is a gifted fabulist and that talent helping her to keep up appearances also assists her in shooting herself in the foot.
{Throughout the movie, there are moments when this reviewer was ready to snap, shout, skreich at the screen for her to at least try to tell the truth. Those moments are telling: They are one of the cinematic methods for mesmerizing viewers, drawing them into the movie, moving the film experience to a higher platform. In other words, viewers become flies on the walls, opening the doors to considerable empathy and identifying with characters.}
Beth enjoying a moment of transcendental freedom. Courtesy of A Season of Rain Production Company
Beth also has an irascible temperament to match a savage, call-it-as-she-sees-it wit. She needs to improve her relationship with her brother, Ben, played splendidly by Anthony Rapp – but that savage wit alienates him as well as others, even strangers.{Throughout the movie, she never alienates her daughter. That’s telling.}
But Other Main Characters Are Also Experiencing Anguishing Times
Ben and his wife, Esther, well played by Beth Dover, are experiencing angst because they’ve been childless for several years despite relentlessly and scrupulously following the best medical advice. And Ben, though a financially successful author, is stressing out because he can’t follow his muse to write the books he wants out of fear his editor and publisher won’t support him.
Can dreams be realized? Are there ways to thwart fickle and unfair fates? What about those of use who engaged in typically neurotic, self-inflicted wounds.
SCRAP was written, directed, and produced by Vivian Kerr and was produced by Rachel Stander. The film has a running time of 105 minutes and is available for sale in all territories.
One of the extraordinary features of SCRAP is the cast, as if each role is scrupulously filled, as if each performance is 5 stars.
SCRAP had its World Premiere at Festival du Cinéma Américain de Deauville and is currently screening as part of Cinequest where it recently had its US Premiere.
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Gregg Morris can be reached at gregghc@comcast.net, profgreggwmorris@gmail.com