Inspired by my own adolescent memories, the film celebrates the longstanding coming-of-age genre but with a complex and nuanced story centering Black, fat, and queer people. Although the film traverses rather heavy themes, its humor and surreal flourishes add moments of levity throughout. At its core, the film is about the destructive ways we cope and self-soothe when we don't have adequate emotional support and the resources to deal in healthier ways.

The film follows thirteen-year-old BEA, a creative and strong-willed Nigerian-American girl who struggles with body image and self-worth as she deals with the sudden shift of the status quo after her estranged aunt PHUMIE comes to live with her family. An eccentric, failed musician who hails from the Midwest, Phumie becomes a caregiver for Bea and her younger sister while their parents are mostly absent, working many hours. First off, Bea feels bitter that Phumie is staying in her bedroom, which is ripe fuel for Bea’s grievance against Phumie. In fact, Bea sees Phumie as a formidable foe who has other strikes against her, including monitoring Bea’s weight and bossing her around. 

On a late summer day, Phumie accompanies Bea and her sister, Opal, on a back-to-school shopping trip. During the outing, tensions rise between Bea and Phumie as Bea resists Phumie’s authority and Phumie makes several chaotic missteps as a new caregiver. Bea strategizes how to drive Phumie away with the help of her malevolent Doppelgänger, an imagined manifestation of the thoughts and emotions Bea suppresses and a surreal flourish throughout the film.

Underscoring the core conflict are moments that show Bea struggling with her body image and self-worth, oftentimes turning to food to cope and, ultimately, numb. In parallel, we also learn that Phumie has her own parallel struggle, which has serious consequences for how she shows up as a caretaker.