In the Company of Men (1997) dir. Neil LaBute
Starring: Aaron Eckhart, Matt Malloy, Stacey Edwards

****

Neil La Bute’s feature debut, though made in 1997, expresses the same themes of the prevailing attitude of 1980’s culture –a world of incessant greed, self-indulgence and all around individualistic Darwinian attitudes. It's one of the darkest and most disturbing satires ever made, and while La Bute wants to make you laugh at his two heinous and maniacal creations of man, he also wants you to feel really bad about it.

Chad (Aaron Eckhart) is one of cinema’s most sinister creations. He’s made even more sinister than traditional movie bad guys because he operates within legal boundaries, in a social environment we all walk around in, but with an arsenal of emotional weaponry as dangerous as daggers.

Think of the most despicable thing someone could do to someone else within legal boundaries. Whatever you can think of, it’s part of Chad’s master plan – a plan to exercise his authority and capabilities of a man.

Chad and Howard are a couple of consultants starting a 6 week job for an unknown company in an unknown city. Chad (Eckhart) is good looking, fast talking, charming on the outside but hateful and misogynistic on the inside. His wife has just left him rendering him bitter and in need of revenge. Howard (Malloy) is a follower, bald, meek, shy, but, strangely, has been put in charge of the consulting team. During a heated discussion about their hatred of politically correctness Chad posits a scheme to find a wallflower-type girl, date her from two different angles and then at the same time dump her with as much malice as humanly possible. Why? Because they can. Howard admits it's 'way out there' but gives in to Chad's charming persuasion.

The woman in question becomes Christine (Stacy Edwards) who also happens to be deaf – all the more perfect for them. Indeed both Chad and Howard wine and dine Christine with maximum attention, showering her with compliments and for Chad, eventually sleeping with her. Everything goes according to plan until Howard actually starts falling for her. But of course, if Christine had her choice, Chad is the man for her. And so the reverse starts to happen, through Chad's passive aggressive games Howard becomes emasculated eventually breaking him down to pieces with regret, guilt and seething defeat.

The film works on so many levels, told with as much subtlety and restraint as it is bold and in your face. Chad's schemes run deeper than mere misogyny. As Howard's participation in the game breaks him down Chad is slyly climbs over him and takes his place as leader of the consulting team. By the end, we're never quite sure whether his plan was to break Stacey or Howard himself as an act of corporate ladder climbing. Either way Chad emerges as the devil incarnate, more maniacal than anyone you could think of in the history of cinema.

On the level of independent filmmaking 'In the Company of Men' is an even more remarkable achievement, using his miniscule $35,000 budget to his advantage. With minimal locations and actors, La Bute creates a cold sparseness, a unique tone of isolation and danger. Each scene is shot with a minimum number of camera angles framed with a clever eye for composition complimenting the clinical precision of his sadistic characters. Enjoy.

Lakeview Terrace (2008) dir. Neil LaBute
Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Patrick Wilson, Kerry Washington

**1/2

When neighbours go bad is the theme of “Lakeview Terrace”. Neil LaBute’s take on a familiar story has moments of the thought-provoking storytelling we expect from the director, but a couple of wrong turns lumps the film into the standard throwaway thriller genre.

Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington play Chris and Lisa Mattson, an interracial couple who moves into a middle-to-upper class Los Angeles suburb. Sucks to be them because from the moment they drive into their driveway they get dirty looks from their neighbour and curmudgeon of all curmudgeons, Abel Turner (Samuel L. Jackson). Abel is a single parent to two young kids and since his wife left him years ago it's left him in a really really bad mood.

Abel breaks Chris’ balls with some unsettling psychological torture. He introduces himself to Chris by pretending to carjack him on his driveway and later that day installs some blinding security lights to shine in their bedroom. Chris nervously shakes it off as good ol’ neighbourly eccentricities. Since Abel is a cop for a brief moment Chris feels safe. But as the days and weeks go by it’s clear Abel has a fundamental hatred of them. His behaviour escalates to more than mere nuisance. Suddenly Chris and Lisa find their life in danger.

Neil Labute works best when exploring the dark side of ordinary characters. Think about the heinous psychological games of his monstrous Chad character in “In the Company of Men” or Rachel Weisz’s manipulative Evelyn in “The Shape of Things”. Abel Turner fits that mold. 

The fact that Samuel L. Jackson is black and someone who resents the Mattson’s interracial marriage is meant to twist some kind of expectation. It reads as obvious manipulation and the portrayal of Lisa’s father as an uptight upper class conservative reeks of that same overly sophisticated portrayal of Sidney Poitier’s character in “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”. The fact is the Mattson’s are saintly as hell, and lacking in any edge. So the Turner vs. Mattson battle is a dichotomized good vs. evil characterization with grey areas left unexploited.

If the writers or Labute imbued any goodness or goodwill in Abel Turner the film could have been more “The House of Sand and Fog” and less “Pacific Heights” or “Single White Female.” We expect LaBute to subvert around our expectations and when that doesn't happen here, it becomes even more frustrating.

And like most thrillers, you’ve seen the trailer you’ve unfortunately seen the entire film.

"Lakeview Terrace" is available on DVD and Blu-Ray from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment


Watch the trailer for Lakeview Terrace - Watch more Entertainment