Review — Booger: A viscerally weird Catwoman
Grief does weird things to one: it can make us act out of character, seek new sensations to drown out our feelings, or even have severe physical manifestations. For Anna, it’s all of the above, but with a twist: she’s turning into a cat.
In Booger, Mary Dauterman’s debut feature film which had its world premiere at Fantasia Film Festival, grief is explored through body horror mixed with comedy for a visceral, surreal effect. Anna (Grace Glowicki) loses her best friend and roommate Izzy (Sofia Dobrushin) to a bike accident. While cleaning out her room in search of a photo album, their cat Booger bites Anna on the hand before running out the open door to the fire escape. Anna rushes after him, but to no avail; Booger is lost.
Catwoman, but make it real and gross
As Anna spirals into intense, all-consuming grief for Izzy, as well as worry for Booger, she also starts exhibiting weird symptoms: her hearing and eye-sight are heightened, she has the instinct to growl at other animals, she starts liking at her hair and eventually, she’s coughing up furballs. Yep, you read that right: before you know it, whole, slimy furballs are coming out of this human’s mouth. The cast and crew had kindly prepared and handed out official Booger barf bags for the audience in anticipation of those scenes, but…
