Rid of Me

James Westby's Rid of Me is a wonderful surprise. One might expect a prototypical low-budget indie, full of awkward, humiliating moments and transgressive behavior from quirky characters, but its emotional honesty and the way it conveys the mindset of its protagonist, Meris (Katie O'Grady), make it unique. Westby boldly opens at Meris's lowest, most outrageous moment, wherein she disgustingly assaults a snooty rival in a local supermarket. Like the film, Meris then has to win us over. O'Grady's brilliantly believable and hilarious portrait of a socially awkward woman in the midst of a life crisis certainly helps. Rid of Me flashes back to her arrival in the provincial Oregon suburb where her husband, Mitch (John Keyser), once successful and now desperate for work, has returned home. While Mitch reconnects with his boisterous, provincial old gang, Meris feels increasingly isolated. Eventually, they split, and Meris ends up working at a local candy store, where she befriends the rebellious Trudy (Orianna Herrman), and is drawn into the local counterculture. Westby cannily mocks the outlandish hipsterism of Meris's new crowd, while pitting them against the "straights" from her recent past. The rapid, elliptical editing is off-putting at first, but it ends up conveying Meris's fractured, fragile state of mind with empathy and precision. Against all odds, Rid of Me is a uniquely rewarding and funny portrait of self-discovery and female friendship.