Thirtyish Beth smiles and gives her five-year-old daughter a squeeze.

“Gremlin, you know I will always take care of you.”

As we’ve heard Beth lie like she breathes, we doubt that, even if the little girl she named Barbara but calls “Birdy” doesn’t.

As we’ve seen Beth ditch her kid for weeks with her brother and his wife, not telling them she was laid off from her job, lost her apartment and has been living in her VW Tiguan on the unwelcoming streets of Beverly Hills, we know all about Beth’s denial.

A single mom who IDs calls from her ex baby daddy “DO NOT ANSWER,” unemployed and compulsively shopping online, keeping up appearances at the kid’s private school where tuition is overdue, showering and dressing in public toilets for job interviews, we can appreciate Beth’s juggling and struggling and still have zero confidence that she has the wherewithal to keep all these balls in the air.

Vivian Kerr stars as Beth, a woman who can’t help but feel like “Scrap” in the slight but engaging indie dramedy she wrote and directed, based on a short film Kerr wrote and starred in a few years back

It’s a character study of two characters — Beth and her popular novelist and ever-enabling older brother (Anthony Rapp) — and a downbeat look at a downward spiral that could hit anybody living paycheck to paycheck, no matter how white collar their career may seem.

Kerr’s Beth is scrappy, proud and yet easy to judge. Her brother’s wife (Lana Parilla) sees how much Ben gave up to raise her after their parents died, and mutters “boundaries” at every boundary BEth crosses and every imposition Beth carelessly tosses their way.

Birdy (Julianna Layne) is staying with them while Beth is on “a business trip” to Atlanta, a trip that’s a lie which they’re none the wiser about despite Beth’s repeated “it ran long” excuses. When Beth “gets back” she moves in, as well.

Ben, trying to find the stamina to finish off his best-selling “Oracle” fantasy series when he’d rather be “another white guy” publishing another Billie Holiday biography, and struggling to conceive with lawyer-wife Stacey, has his suspicions about Beth. He knows her better than anybody, after all.

But he’s seen worse, and if he can’t make her own-up to her responsibilities and level with him today, maybe tomorrow will be different.

“Scrap,” a film festival darling, features good, little-heralded actors playing “types” covering a lot of familiar and predictable ground. The guilt-stricken ex (Brad Schmidt), the cute skating rink manager (Khleo Thomas) suggesting openings at “the outlet mall” to the unemployed “public releations professional,” the overly-made-up LA job interviewer, the vapid former colleague all have their place and arrive at almost pre-ordained moments.

A nice Angelino asks homeless Beth “Are you all right?” So a cranky home owner is sure to follow and call the police on her for squatting (literally) in his subdivision.

But formulaic limitations aside, Kerr and Rapp really click as siblings who know which buttons to push and which scenic locations will trigger flashbacks. Parilla brings a compassion to the stressed-as-it-is sister-in-law that’s heartening to see.

And Kerr carries her film with an alternately empathetic and irritating pluck that makes you root for her and her “story,” even if she’s merely restating the tried, the true and the obvious for a new generation.

Rating: unrated, profanity

Cast: Vivian Kerr, Anthony Rapp, Khleo Thomas, Brad Schmidt and Lana Parilla

Credits: Scripted and directed by Vivian Kerr. A Rue Dangeau release on Apple or iTunes.

Running time: 1:45