Scrap review – Vivian Kerr’s subtle performance as flawed single mum comes up trumps

In the press release for her feature-directing debut, actor-turned-director Vivian Kerr describes how she hit rock bottom in 2016. She was drinking too much at home alone in her Los Angeles apartment and ignoring friends’ calls, feeling miserable that after a decade-long career acting she had nothing much to show for it. Out of the other end of her fug came Scrap, which Kerr has written, directed and stars in as another woman whose life hasn’t turned out how she planned.

Kerr plays Beth, who is living in her car in Los Angeles in as much style as she can manage – sleeping on the back seat in expensive pink silk pyjamas. After being made redundant from her job in PR she’s unemployed and homeless; still, Beth is maintaining an outward show of success, with her jumbo oat-milk lattes and manicures. She’s left her five-year-old daughter with her brother Ben (Anthony Rapp) and his wife Stacy (Lana Parrilla), breezily lying to them that she’s out of town on a work trip. The subtlety of Kerr’s performance is that it’s clear Beth is trying to convince herself that she’s holding it together as much as anyone else.

Some of the best parts of the film show how irresponsible and selfish she can be. Waking up after getting blackout drunk with an ex, she misses her daughter’s ballet show; flawed female protagonists are one thing, but a flawed mother on screen still feels radical. What’s a bit disappointing is that Scrap is a film with a sentimental side, as Beth slowly begins to re-examine her priorities. There are a few unnecessarily melodramatic scenes softening the edges, explaining why she is how she is. Kerr’s script doesn’t always match the quality of her interesting, layered lead performance.