In the Company of Men

»In the Company of Men«, Neil LaBute’s directorial debut, made for a mere $25,000, is arguably one of the most radical and uncompromising independent films of the 1990s. It is hard to imagine a more unflinching portrayal of toxic male thinking and behavior. Chad and Howard, two utterly ordinary men in gray flannel suits, arrive in an unfamiliar city for a six-week stint to carry out a project for their bosses. Chad, played by Aaron Eckhart, proposes an additional, private project to his colleague: they will seek out a lonely woman, seduce her separately, and then dump her at the end of the six weeks. In doing so, they aim to exact revenge for all the wrongs they believe women have inflicted upon them. LaBute depicts the vileness and cruelty of these two white-collar workers with such matter-of-factness that his debut was often misunderstood as cynical and misogynistic. Yet he takes no stance whatsoever. His film is akin to a sociological experiment, compelling the viewer to gaze wide-eyed into the abyss of human behavior.