Rid of Me

I loved this movie. The movie starts with a scene that is so gross and disgusting… you immediately feel sympathy for the "victim" and wonder how someone could be so horrible to another human being. But then you are taken back to the beginning… way before the previous scene… to a time when everything was going well. It doesn't take long before you begin to like Maris and your feelings get all twisted inside. Who hasn't met the family or friends of a loved one and wonder if you could ever fit in… if they will like you? The music in this movie puts you on the edge of your seat, bracing you for the worst. You begin to realize that you are sympathizing for Maris and not her "victim." You are cheering for Maris. This movie plays on every emotion. Katie O'Grady is wonderful and James Westby has truly created some interesting characters and a great film.

Rid of Me is an experience. Be prepared to cringe, laugh and maybe cry, because Katie O'Grady makes this journey devastatingly real. As Meris, she conjures the realization of our worst fears and insecurities and demonstrates the graceless and mortifying path back to redemption. There's no romanticizing the painful detours a life can take in this film and there's really nothing tidy and formulaic about it.

Definitely something different. And me, I love this stuff. As gut-wrenching as it was to watch at times, it was also full of quirky characters and well-timed comic relief.

Good stuff!

I enjoyed the movie. The filmography, with long close-ups of faces and eyes, fantasies, and flashbacks or forwards depicted the emotions someone in a similar situation might feel. Watching the film I had, "Oh honey! No! Don't do that!" moments, or, "Oh crap that's awful, I hate it when that happens," and "Pull yourself up by your bootstraps," and "Oh, now that's just degrading, but you probably needed to live through it to get past it," moments. People everywhere have acted out after disappointments and this is a great depiction of someone searching for something both during, and after, an epic loss. The soundtrack was great. I don't know what it cost, but it made me *feel* as much as Titanic ever could, and I assume on a fraction of the budget.

You know what usually happens when you watch an indie movie with divided 1 star/5 star reviews on netflix... 90% of the time you watch it, it's a solid 2 star (rarely a 3) out of 5 and you don't even think about it again. The rest of the time it's something "interesting" - not necessarily great. Last night we watched "Rid of Me" a 2011 indie movie. I can't stop thinking about it all last night and today.

It totally touched me (mostly by creeping me out). The film is about Meris, a socially awkward, shy young woman who is in love and moves with her all American jock boy type husband to his home town in Oregon where a group of his frat bro buddies and their wives await. The friends are annoying and crass, and she has some mental conditions (depression, social anxiety). Things don't go well in terms of Meris fitting in. When an old flame of the husband moves back to town, the marriage is soon on the rocks. She goes through some difficult stuff and then the movie is about "finding yourself". Cheap movie and production is pretty bad and throughout the first half at least I felt incredibly uncomfortable, but this is the intention and possibly even the point of the film.

First it was interesting that the movie was about a woman and her journey. This woman was not presented as classically attractive, nor is she the life of the party by any means. It's rare to have this kind of character focused on. At the same time, the focus on this character is what makes the movie both uncomfortable and poignant.

Personally, I could not relate to the title character, the meek Meris. How can someone be so hapless and direction-less? It seemed she had no autonomy as she was being carried into further and further horrific situations that gave her no respite from herself or from the mean people she dealt with. I realise she was not meant to be a realistic character but the way the film is shot you are following her all the time and you feel like shaking her up throughout the first half of the movie. Meris, how can you not protect yourself from going to those places? Don't you grow a backbone girl?? I just found my mind in a logical bind that a person would let themselves get into situations like that. Perhaps I am forgetting how you can be so naive when you're in stupid young love and at that point in life when you have not yet understood that people are weak and disappointing and you should always protect your back.

And the backbone, she does indeed grow in her own way and with a lot of mess on the way, as we all do - well maybe a bit messier than average. We see Meris develop all the way to the act of extreme defiance she carries out in the opening scene of the movie, which where she walks up to a plastic blonde woman in a supermarket and does something shocking and defiant. (Side note: This act is probably one that is extremely feminine in some ways, but it struck me as a very male scene to write - I don't know if I am going to be able to explain this, it's just a subtle thing, almost like a man envisioned what Meris would do).

The finding yourself part, the main theme of the film, is not all blood. There is comic relief, plus some high school regression, friendship, 90s style girl power, smoking, aging goth characters ; and all that stuff works in the end and you have weird friends and you laugh and you learn to accept yourself and not to let a man have control over who you can and cannot be.

I find it a hard movie to recommend in an unqualified way because the movie is uncomfortable but if you want to try something different, it's worth checking this out.

The opening scene, as is mentioned in many reviews, is not the "hook" they intended, and you might click your Roku back to Menu, but give it a chance and this film will break your heart. It's so real and true, I've met all these people, I've even been some of them. The directing is subtle and jumps around like a mosaic, but I got it. And the awkwardness is well done. This is a terrible comparison, but think of the silent, awkward moments in The Office. Instead of being funny, these situations are so cruel but so real and familiar that you believe them. We've all encountered these things at some point, but here, no one steps in for the downtrodden protagonist. She's left out in the cold over and over again. It's one of those films you stay with until the end of the credits.