Looking back at the films of Neil LaBute

“It’s just men and women, right? Like any other story – like every other story.”

These are words spoken by Jerry (Ben Stiller) early in Your Friends and Neighbours (1998), the sophomore feature film directed by Neil LaBute. He’s trying to convince his drama students about the essence of historical theatre, but these words could just as easily be used to get to the crux of his recurring interest in complex relationships, often shot through the lens of a pessimistic view of people. These themes come clearly to the fore in the films that have been included as part of the retrospective of LaBute’s work that is screening this week at Oldenburg Film Festival.

Along with the premiere of his new film, Murderous, the strand will screen five of LaBute’s films from across the past three decades: In the Company of Men (1997), the aforementioned Your Friends and Neighbours, Nurse Betty (2000), Some Velvet Morning (2013) and House of Darkness (2022). The majority of them showcase LeBute’s distinct theatrical style and revealing dialogue. There are duets like the combustible sparring between Alice Eve and Stanley Tucci in Some Velvet Morning and stilted portentous flirting between Kate Bosworth and Justin Long in House of Darkness. Then there are wider ensemble pieces that variously skewer toxic relationships and the self-destructive behaviours people bring upon themselves and others.

LaBute started out in the theatre itself, bursting onto the scene in the late 80s before transitioning to the screen with In the Company of Men, an adaptation of his own play. The film stars Aaron Eckhart and Matt Malloy as two business executives who set out to entrap a woman (Stacy Edwards) to take revenge for perceived sleights. Chad (Echkart) is a determined misogynist who wants to put women in their place – Howard (Malloy) is recently wounded and goes along with the plan. The film is filled with dialogue that debates behaviours and attitudes, it is uncompromising in its portrait of two angry vindictive men. It’s not necessarily easy to love, but its gripping and impossible to stop thinking about.

If anything, things became more excruciating in Your Friends and Neighbours, which centres around three friends, Barry (Eckhart again), Jerry (Stiller) and Cary (Jason Patric) and their partners Mary (Amy Brenneman) and Terri (Catherine Keener). The film lays bare a tapestry of disillusioned relationships that becoming increasingly convoluted as the sexual relationships between Barry and Mary and Jerry and Terri break down and people’s attention begins to wander. As with his previous film, these features various scenes of locker room talk from the guys, comparing conquests and revealing their deepest – sometimes very dark – secrets and desires.

2000’s Nurse Betty is one of the films LaBute is probably most well know for and came during a string of bigger studio work that included things like Lakeview Terrace and the The Wicker Man remake. The film stars Renee Zellweger as the eponymous Betty, a waitress who suffers a post-traumatic shock after seeing her husband (Eckhart) murdered by hitmen (Morgan Freeman and Chris Rock) and begins a cross-country trip believing she’s the betrothed of her favourite soap opera character. It’s a much broader rom-com than much of LaBute’s other work, but it still has it’s centre a host of curious interrelationships, not least the infatuation that Freeman’s hitman has for Betty, who he must pursue to wrap up loose ends.

The two more recent films in the LaBute retrospective are both, largely, two-handers and once again seek to dissect facets of toxic masculinity. In Some Velvet Morning, Fred (Tucci) arrives on Velvet’s (Alice Eve) doorstep with luggage in tow, having left his wife for his former mistress. She is shocked, having not seen him for four years and there begins an ongoing real-time argument as he tries to insinuate himself back into her life and she tries to avoid the evident explosiveness of their prior break-up. In House of Darkness, Hap (Long) also finds himself at the home of Mina (Bosworth) but this time it is spook castle and there is a sense that Hap may have been lured here under false pretences in what unfolds as a gothic take on the previously described gender dynamics.

With perhaps Nurse Betty aside, there are relatively few characters to truly love across this selection of films – LaBute’s view of human relationships is not an especially positive one and the people he fills his films with often incline towards their worst impulses. This is perhaps one of the hallmarks of him as an independent filmmaker, someone who can mine the human condition and present our failings in all their ugliness without too much need to round off the edges and smooth the transitions. His characters can regularly be grotesque and infuriating but his piercing dialogue and assurance behind the camera make all his work – even at its most theatrical – a memorable experience.

Read more of our coverage of Oldenburg Film Festival.