This Is Our Lives on (Billie) Holiday: 'Scrap'
Siblings in altered states, just trying to do their best.
Dear Moviegoers,
There are many great moments in the low-key domestic American drama Scrap, but few are as important as the story's setup. We are introduced to Vivian Kerr as Beth, as she slowly awakes from a deep sleep. She has an eye mask covering herself, designed with beauty lashes. She’s wearing pink silk pajamas and is ready to respond to her smartphone at a moment’s notice. As she sits up, we pull back to a brilliantly timed and conceived reveal: she’s in the backseat of her car, surrounded by clothes and toiletries. She is homeless, or as she will eventually put it, in the process of moving.
Most assuredly, I can say that Scrap is a very well-expressed and downright cute movie, but that would be to undercut what is an independent filmmaking triumph. Director and star Vivian Kerr, who I must admit to being in the dark about until this movie, accomplishes what bigger-name talents have attempted and failed at doing. It’s not easy having a camera pointing in your direction, nor is it easy to direct a camera at yourself, as expectations must be running high. To show restraint, control, and vulnerability all at once is a maddening undertaking. Scrap might not seem like a hard production to get through, but with everything so perfectly detailed and tailored, it couldn’t have been anything but hard to pull off. And yet, it does just that.
The film isn’t all about Beth’s turmoil, even if that’s at the heart of everything. She reconnects with her brother Ben, played by the great Anthony Rapp, at first out of inconvenience - she needs him to shelter her young daughter while she struggles to find new work after having been laid off. Ben has enough on his plate, between an unfulfilling writing career and trying to have a baby with his wife Stacy, but he treats the balancing act of problem-solving with steadfast adult obligation, no matter how exhausted he is.
Through gritted teeth and heavy confrontations, the two siblings try to make it through past heartbreaks, revisiting and relitigating experiences as if found in an old scrapbook, which does come into play in one lonely scene. Is this where the title Scrap comes from?
The one instrument of bonding that the family has is via the music of Billie Holiday, whose songs pop into scenes to both pleasant surprise and silly fanfare. This might be where the ear should’ve met the editing, as Holiday’s tunes are used awkwardly here and there. Then again, what is more awkward than Beth’s efforts?
Ben is the surrogate parent, and Beth is the obvious brat. This is what Scrap has to work with, and that’s just enough for an engaging movie. However, Vivan Kerr and crew take things many steps further, with technical production prowess and genuinely tangible depth. I was startled by how connected I felt to the film, moving along with everyone on screen and tapping into the design and composition of everything else. Yes, Vivian, Scrap is wonderful. And yes, it’s an achievement that should be taken to the cinematic bank.
Pride can be a dangerous thing to live in, especially when your home is your car and your car has a broken window covered by a garbage bag. Rock bottom is no place for immaturity, and being well-off is no state for holding resentments. There is no sibling rivalry in Scrap, but rather a brother-to-sister challenge. Up for the task? By force, it seems. Adulthood sucks. 4/5
Scrap is now available on demand.
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