Neil Labute’s prior In the Company of Men I consider to be among the quintessential independent films of the 1990’s; it was made on a shoestring budget, and its script and acting are superlative. (In an OFCS poll a while ago, I ranked Aaron Eckhart’s Chad among film’s most vile villains.)
This is Labute’s sophomore film, and it plays like a textbook sequel. There is no body count to exceed, but Your Friends & Neighbors is decidedly more populated and much, much fouler than its predecessor. Labute’s aesthetic – one of employing shock, offence, and taboos almost exclusively through dialogue – is much like that of Tod Solondz, but Labute is the provocateur I prefer. A shame he hasn’t employed this aesthetic as effectively in any one of his subsequent films.
by Rumsey Taylor | Source: IFC
03 Aug 2005 12:25 PM | Submit Comment
