by Steven Zeitchik
The New York gathering winds down this weekend, but here are five noteworthy entries from this year’s festival — and some ideas about where to watch them in the coming months.
Full article Los Angeles Times
Tribeca: Seven Questions For Katie O’Grady Of ‘Rid Of Me’
May 3rd, 2011
by Simbarashe
Seven questions for Rid of Me‘s Katie O’Grady. O’Grady, who plays Meris in the film, has received critical acclaim as a socially anxious woman who’s forced into a divorce shortly after moving with her husband back to his hometown.
Read full article at Starpulse
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Tribeca Film Festival ’11: Rid of Me Review
May 3rd, 2011
by Melissa Hanson
Rid of Me by director/writer James Westby (Film Geek, The Auteur) tells the tale of Meris (Katie O’Grady) and Mitch (John Keyser); newlyweds who move back to Mitch’s hometown in Oregon. When Meris has trouble fitting in with his friends, a series of terribly awkward and hilarious situations occur.
Mostly everyone has found themselves in a situation where you felt you didn’t fit. Katie O’Grady (Management) as Meris is both sad and hopeful. We see her as someone we can relate to, and we have no idea what she will do next. I loved the character and am looking forward to seeing what O’Grady will do next. She seems to have a similarity to Kristin Wiig in that she can pull off hilarity as well as drama.
This is exactly the type of movie that I expected to see at the Tribeca Film Festival. It’s got non-mainstream actors and an off-the-wall story. There are a lot of unnecessary zooms, but I actually found it to be quite hilarious in a purposely good way. The sound is raw, the lighting is natural, but if you can get over that, it’s quite fun.
Rating: A truly enjoyable indie black comedy. 7/10
Read full article at Movie Buzzers
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No Room at the Orgy as Tribeca Wraps: THE BEST OF TRIBECA’S REST
May 3rd, 2011
by Erica Abeel
Rid Of Me
In this inventive dark comedy by James Westby sad-sack Meris (Katie O’Grady) moves with her studly but stiff husband to Portland, Oregon, where she gets little love from his friends, a ghastly bunch out of The Stepford Wives. When her husband dumps her for his high school flame, Meris takes a job in a candy store, stumbling into the Northwest underground punk scene and emerging with a renewed sense of self-worth.
Why you should see it:
Director James Westby is a talent on the march. “Rid of Me” is not only cheerfully obscene, hip, and wickedly funny — it scraps linear narrative in favor of flash forwards and backwards, deftly capturing emotional states through techniques peculiarly suited to cinema. Using super-saturated colors, outrageous up-your-nose closeups, and tropes from horror movies Rid of Me is about the triumph of the nerds over the bland, intolerant majority.
Full article at Huffington Post
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Rid of Me-Variety Review
April 23rd, 2011
reviewed by John Anderson
Bracingly original, alarming and droll, the righteously ribald “Rid of Me” should prove a breakthrough for helmer James Westby and his producer and leading lady, Katie O’Grady. Pic also offers further evidence of the remarkably innovative indie cinema being produced outside New York and Los Angeles — in this case, Portland, Ore., where the domestic meller and the horror movie have met, wed and proven fruitful. A devoted cult following seems more likely than Pacific Northwest rain, although a reasonable ad budget could mean bigger things.
Full article on Variety.com
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Tribeca 2011: ‘Rid of Me’ tries to find its niche
April 23rd, 2011
A low-budget “Mean Girls” is how organizers promoted “Rid of Me,” James Westby’s Oregon-set black comedy that had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on Friday night. Although the movie is interested in social fault lines (among adults), particularly between havoc-wreaking outcasts and complacent yuppies, the more apt comparison might be to Miranda July’s “Me and You and Everyone We Know,” only darker and more goth.
Read the full article
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Catching Up With Rid Of Me’s James Westby
April 23rd, 2011
Writer, director, editor and producer James Westby is in town to promote Rid of Me, his newest film, which premieres this week at the Tribeca Film Festival. Rid of Me can best be described as a period piece, a comedy, a black comedy; OK, it’s nearly horror; but it transitions sweetly into an intimate documentary-styled portrait of self-discovery. In the movie, the talented actress Katie O’Grady plays Meris, a disenfranchised wife, who moves with her husband, Mitch, to his hometown in Portland, Ore.’s suburbs, where Meris, for the first time, meets her husband’s old friends from high school, friends who arouse his former frat boy persona. As a result, Meris’ life becomes a solitary hell, until she mixes with a group of pseudo punk rockers who help Meris grow and ultimately discover herself.
Read the full article on NY Press
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Meet the 2011 Tribeca Filmmakers | “Rid of Me” Director James Westby
April 19th, 2011
by indieWIRE
When newlyweds Meris and Mitch move to Portland, Meris does her best to fit in with her new hubby’s old high school clique. The harder she tries, the more painfully obvious it is that Meris just doesn’t belong. But its not until the gang succeeds in rekindling an old flame between Mitch and his perfect, upbeat first love that Meris—tactfully put—loses it. Her life trashed, Meris settles for a job as a candy store clerk in town. There she finds a real friend in rocker Trudy, who introduces her to the virtues of thick black eyeliner and the grimy underworld of the Northwest punk scene. Self-discovery and 1960s Cambodian rock lie just around the bend.
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Katie O’Grady Set to Shock and Awe Tribeca in Rid of Me
April 18th, 2011
The Tribeca Film Festival commences this week in New York, promising its usual fistful of revelations and discoveries to go along with the annual world premiere of whatever Edward Burns made for $400,000 this time around. The first such discovery I can claim is Rid of Me, director James Westby’s curious hybrid of psychological drama and pitch-black comedy that, if there’s any justice, should make actress Katie O’Grady a star
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Faces of the Festival
March 14th, 2011
Katie O’Grady: Rid of Me
3.13.11
Meet the one-to-watch star of James Westby‘s indie gem, Rid of Me, premiering at TFF 2011. We’d eat candy with her any day of the week.
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