‘Booger’ (2023)

A versatile story with elements of comedy, fantasy and horror, ‘Booger’ follows Anna (Grace Glowicki), a young woman dealing with the recent passing of her best friend Izzy (Sofia Dobrushin). Focusing all of her attention on Booger, a stray cat the girls had taken in, Anna begins a metamorphosis after being bitten by the cat.

A character exploration deeply rooted in tragedy and grief, the story is the singular exploration of Anna and what remains of her life after Izzy’s passing. The Anna focuses all of her time and attention searching for the stray that had jumped from their apartment to return to living as a stray.

Foregoing all of her responsibilities, such as maintaining personal and professional relationships, Anna devotes her time solely in search of the cat. Somewhat heavy handed and at times straining, Anna sees every person in her life as a distraction, keeping her from finding Booger.

Not too subtle, the film intertwines Anna’s self-isolating tendencies with a fantastical turn of events. The more time passes the more she notices changes within herself. The bite mark left on Anna by the feline begins to fester, the woman develops an appetite for cat food and begins experiencing psychedelic dreams of becoming consumed by the ego of a feline.

Leaning into her newly acquired tendencies, Anna further pushes everyone away and the film reaches a climactic sequence, where the woman seemingly fully immersed by the idea of actually becoming a cat comes to a head. Electrifying and mesmerizing, ‘Booger’ takes a hard left turn into a kaleidoscopic and colorful downward spiral for Anna as she reaches the apex of her grief.

Subsequently consoled by her boyfriend Max (Garrick Bernard), Anna is brought back to reality when confronted with the truth. Booger had run away years prior, with Anna displacing the memory and using it as an excuse to remain close to the though of Izzy and her memory.

Delivering a harrowing tale of a woman who abandons everything in the light of having lost a friend and confidante, Glowicki delivers an empathetic and loathsome character that does everything in her power to push on without trying to acknowledge her feelings and the devastating void that has been left in her life. Argumentative and difficult to be around, Glowicki’s Anna pushes everyone around her away, even though it is more than apparent before too long that what she needs is to begin the journey of recovery thought acknowledging what has transpired.

Visually stimulating, Anna’s final visions of becoming like Booger take the film to an abstract extreme that chaotically conveys the turmoil within. By showing the woman suffer through her metamorphosis, she reaches a final stage of evolution, demanding of her to, ironically, accept reality and face her loss.

Simple and not overly verbose, ‘Booger’ places Anna at the center at all times, dissecting her transformation and journey as she traverses the difficulties of grief. Unable to confront reality she resorts to an extreme escape, with her mind seemingly altering her physical form. Ultimately serving as a cautionary tale about friends, family and loss, ‘Booger’ takes it to the extreme, to force the protagonist to acknowledge the truth, that there is no escaping death and that processing grief is the only way forward.

Score: 3/4