Booger

Where did Booger come from? The garbage? He’s a mess when he first shows up. We see them in phone format, him and Anna (Grace Glowicki) and Izzy (Sofia Dobrushin), one happy family. But that was back then. Now Izzy is dead and Anna is struggling to function.

As she drags her bike up the stairs, we hear her messages. Her boss is growing increasingly frustrated by her tardiness. The landlord and various creditors want to be paid. Then there’s a reminder of Izzy’s memorial service. That one, at least, sinks in – she will make an effort to attend – but she prefers just to curl up in bed in Izzy’s favourite cardigan, watching more of those phone videos, holding onto her best friend as if she were still alive. The two of them at karaoke, singing about pina coladas and getting caught in the rain.

Booger is sick of her shit. When she tries to stop him from licking a plant, he bites her, then jumps out of the window and disappears. She will spend the rest of the film trying to find him, as her body – or perhaps just her mind – undergoes a strange transformation.

There are any number of films out there about feline women. Playful and kittenish or sleek and sexy, they purr across the screen, oozing confidence and desirability. One can only assume that their development was closely overseen by cats. Here, we see Anna become strangely fascinated by watching birds and fish. Neighbour cats growl at her. She absent mindedly rubs her head on a tree. In a pub toilet, she coughs up a hairball.

A poignant study of the grieving process, Booger uses horror elements to explore disorientation and the acute insecurities that emerge from being suddenly alone. Anna struggles to keep up with the requirement to do normal things in a world which no longer feels normal. Friends, neighbours, an increasingly confused boyfriend try to help, but she struggles to connect, and she’s jealous, wanting the memory of Izzy all to herself. Vinny Alfano’s masterful sound design highlights the different things that grab her attention, and works together with Zoe Polanski’s music to convey the experience of sensory overload. Increasingly animalistic, Anna seeks refuge in drink, which doesn’t help.

Director Mary Dauterman keeps her camera close. Much of the film is shot inside a small apartment, and the awkwardness of this suits it perfectly. We watch Anna from odd angles, sometimes through the hatch between living room and kitchen, as a cat might. Search and searching and searching for Booger, longing for Izzy, she seems unable to observe herself.

An acutely observed, febrile film, screened at the 2023 Fantasia International Film Festival and always destined for wider attention, Booger is something special, untidy in places, sometimes downright unreasonable, but capable, nonetheless, of worming its way into your heart.