Rid of Me (2011)

Its always amusing to see the very first reviews being honest and negative. Than the people involved in this movie always try to bury the negative reviews by covering how bad this movie is with "positive comments" on how much they liked it with out explaining why. The movie gives no real reason why to like the main female character. The movie just annoyed the crap out of me, the characters are stereotypically fake as hell. Every single person filmed in this movie needs to be slapped across the face because of how much they annoy you. This movie has too many obvious "oh gee what bad luck" moments. It feels more of a home video than a movieYeah just bad and boring and very frustrating to watch adults trying to act like they are still 12 years old doing underage drinking. FAIL FAIL FAIL

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.

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.

Okay, so here it comes in all its stupid glory, from the master filmmaker's own blow-hard announcement: "here is the epic behind-the-scenes video of RID OF ME, which comes out this March on DVD". Well we can't wait. Now maybe we'll get a mini-masterclass glimpse into why this absolute "dog of movie", to coin the words of a responsible critic, is as woefully awful as it is. Rid of Me, together with the inanely amateur films of Todd E. Freeman, (where do they get the money for all this junk?) are all that Portland has to offer? We think not. Absolutely in love with Portland, Oregon, but not her filmmakers. But then I'm not alone judging by the reviews. Okay, maybe I just want my money back from the Living Room Theater for being duped into buying a ticket.