In Celebration of First Features: #3 - Neil LaBute's "In The Company of Men"

The selection of these first features is anything but random. As I gear up to produce my first feature I'm looking for two kinds of first feature - (1) those first films by directors who go on to become my role models as working professionals, or at the very least become directors whose work I find fascinating, and (2) the first films whose themes and scenarios resonate or run in parallel with the themes and scenarios in the script I'm developing. Neil LaBute's feature debut, "In The Company of Men," falls into the latter category.

Two executives, Chad (Aaron Eckhart) and Howard (Matt Malloy), both men with axes to grind over relationships with women, plot to get even with all woman-kind for their past injury. They intend to find a vulnerable woman, vigorously romance her like some tag-team wrestling duo, and then dump both dump her at the point it will cause her most anguish. In that way they both believe they'll be settling some scores. Except, of course, it isn't that simple.


Adapting the film script from his own stage play, LaBute shot the whole film over two weeks for around $25,000 (financed largely by an auto-insurance settlement). Watching this as a filmmaker the money goes as far as it can - most shots feel underlit, though properly exposed. Interiors of the office, especially, often feel like they're night interiors when clearly their not supposed to be... not enough ambient fill splashing around the room, too many deep, deep shadows... But for the most part the camera is where it needs to be. Most shots are locked off with the camera on sticks. The only handheld shot that leaps to mind is the close-up of Chad on the bed with the object of their vindictive scheming, Christine (Stacey Edwards) - an unexpected organic touch that invigorates the frame and gives the scene an unspoken vibrancy.

The film does at times feel cramped because of awkward camera framing compounded by lighting that doesn't compensate for a lack of physical depth in the shot. This, married to the stagey feeling of this adapted screenplay, promotes the amateurish feeling in places. But that aside the characters are clearly written, and the performances are pretty solid - though Eckhart's Chad feels so demonic at times that he verges on caricature. The real strength of this film is the economy with which it is staged, and the energy LaBute tries to put into every scene. This is by no means a kinetic film, as is usually the case with low-budget screenplays, but here the interstitial music cues played during every title card and again over the closing credits are so feverish and bombastic that the non-filmed elements perfectly balance the quieter filmed elements. The music highlights the anger and hysteria of Chad and Howard's mission... a quest for delirious power over unsuspecting victims.



For me the key here is the writing - a solid script that inspires inventive and vigorous performance, not to mention an economy of locations and extraneous speaking characters that all go to making a two weeks schedule possible. My biggest disappointment, echoing what I said in #2 of this series, is that this film isn't more cinematic. The focus is so utterly on performance while little energy was spent in making the camera work more expressive. While it's possible that this was a creative decision on the part of LaBute's, I personally feel the film suffers from a restrained camera - the very stillness of the camera draws attention to itself, especially now in the era of handheld digital camcorders. The performances are left trapped in this inert boxes, with nowhere to run to.

A feature film is cinema, regardless of the production budget. It's the feature director's duty to find a vibrant cinematic vocabulary for themselves, in order to counter the point-and-shoot mindset that often creeps in when time is short and money is tight.