“Rid of Me” is a dud. It’s further evidence that the Mumblecore movement is like dog shit stuck to the feet of navel-gazing filmmakers who follow in its steps. Writer/director James Westby shows little promise as a director, much less as a scriptwriter.
Filmed on what seems like a toy camera, and with the lighting design of dog house, the movie lacks a single empathetic character. Manic depressive Meris (Katie O’Grady) has the personality of an old stinky running shoe. Her Oregon husband Mitch (John Keyser) is a terminal frat boy with the charm and intellect of a flea.
Mitch has recently lost his job (shocker), and so the couple road-trip back to his rinky-dink home town where he looks forward to reuniting with his culture-less — read racist idiot — group of best friends. Meris doesn’t pretend to try to engage with Mitch’s judgmental asshole buddies and their air-headed wives.
Still, she wins no audience empathy because she’s such a pill. She takes the group’s advice to avoid a Muslim family she makes friends with on her first day in town.
It isn’t until Mitch divorces her that Meris starts to find her voice as a punk rocker inspired by a bi-sexual chic she works with at a local candy store. She could have at least explored her obvious lesbian tendencies, but that would be too much work for such a lazy movie.
“Rid of Me” is a great movie to bet a friend that they’ll walk out of in the first 10 minutes. They’ll have the cash to pay up because they’ll demand it from the box office.
Not Rated. 89 mins.
