Overrated

A Brilliant Conflict

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

I can honestly say that this is my favorite now because I relate to it so much.I think that anyone that suffers from social anxiety/awkwardness, lack of social awareness, depression, has gone through a recent personal growth, rebellious phase, or relationship troubles should probably watch this film. I also honestly think that females will relate to this more... and to be frank, females that have experience being an outcast.I personally think this film helps the viewer to relate to a character that suffers from being out of place and naive through a difficult journey of starting over and finding an inner strength and independence.I related to this film so much and anyone that doesn't... well to be frank... is probably a preppy spoiled brat that had a life that just came easy to them, or is just a heartless bastard, or defensive about an insecurity their in denial about.I know that was an emphatic statement about the film, but it was a very touching film, and I think the "darkness" in it kind of reflects the fury of outcasts in a very relate able way. I think it also may teach women to not mother their men so much either.So many themes in the movie and messages that are so powerful. I love this movie! Anybody that doesn't take anything from this movie is very narrow minded and shallow.

I can be a bit squeamish about this or that, so the first 10 minutes or so of this film made me wonder what I was getting into, but I was soon deeply involved in poor Maris' sheltered life. It is a journey and I loved watching every darkly funny moment of it. Yes, the film is low- budget but the writing - the three acts, the dramatic arc - is all there. There is actually falling action and a full resolution after the horrifying climax. I was giggling at Maris, sad for Maris, laughing with Maris, cheering for Maris, fearing for Maris...and I won't spoil the ending, which I loved. I also loved her sugar-addicted friend. Please take this film to be very much like the very early days of independent film, where locals could be found in the background and local artists made cameos. If you liked "Scumrock" or other films like that, then you'll like this film. Honestly, I'm troubled by the poor reviews of this film because I think it handles the very important subject of how we treat people who don't fall in what we consider the mainstream - from women, to artists, to people of color. Perhaps it takes on some parts of this subject on more than others, but it's only one movie. I also really liked some of the humor with ominous sound, when cutting to shots that showed the small town/pre-fab housing tableaux, for example. Lots of fun moments in this film. Again, I do not understand why people are giving this film a bad review. As someone who is a life-long film watcher (films from all over the world, both big and small budget) and as someone with many friends who work in film, I see this film as nothing but a success. Perhaps the people reviewing the work have some other motives in mind.

Andrew Schenker of Slant Magazine says it best, and finally the plain truth. "In In his latest film, Rid of Me, writer/director/editor/producer James Westby trades in a lot of false assumptions: that by constantly zooming into a character's eyes, he can somehow get at essential truths about their nature; that showing the same object from three different angles in quick succession gives us a more complete picture of a given situation; and that almost everyone in the world (or at least everyone in small-town Oregon) is either a racist, narrow-minded, overgrown frat boy/sorority girl/rules-beholden or booze-soaked, vomit-prone goth. At once hopelessly amateurish and given to desperate assertions of "virtuosity," Westby's film seems as lost as its perpetually confused and gratingly childlike protagonist. Moving from Irvine, California to her husband's Pacific Northwest hometown, Meris Canfield (Katie O'Grady) finds life in her new community to be instantly and wholly oppressive. Although she tries to be a dutiful wife, her husband's friends, with whom she's constantly forced to socialize, are unbearably obnoxious; the men are given to boorish antics, the women to crude condescension. When her hubby ditches her for an old flame, Meris takes a job at a local candy store where she befriends goth-chick coworker Trudy (Orianna Herrman). Before long, she's attending punk shows (goth/punk, what's the difference?), guzzling whiskey straight out the bottle, and getting screwed by sleazy men. Will our heroine ever right the ship and find balance in her life? Of course she will, and apparently all it takes is the love of a good man, in this case a geeky record-shop clerk, a narrative device that becomes necessary because Meris is so childlike and barely there that she scarcely seems capable of any independent action. (Or when she does, it feels like the whim of the director rather than anything that arises organically from her amorphous character.) With both the straights and the Goths reduced to gross caricature, there's little for Meris to choose between. And yet, for all the ridicule heaped on the latter group, it's the black-clad crew that allows our girl to find herself, the excesses of their behavior (along with all the film's other problems) papered over and resolved in one neat tying-it-all-up montage. If there's one thing Westby loves to do it's to cut quickly and often (whether between past and present, between different views of a various object, or between ever closer glimpses of a character's face), so it's no surprise that he calls on his signature montage technique to bring together the messy, incoherent strands of his movie, though when he does, it's with no more purpose than any of his previous bouts of brain-exploding Final Cut Pro manipulations.

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.