1997 Directed by Neil LaBute
Two business executives--one an avowed misogynist, the other recently emotionally wounded by his love interest--set out to exact revenge on the female gender by seeking out the most innocent, uncorrupted girl they can find and ruining her life.
En compañía de hombres, Menn imellom, En compagnie des hommes, Nella società degli uomini, 남성 전용 회사, Między nami facetami, Na Companhia de Homens, В компании мужчин, 与男人同行
USA
Sundance Film Festival
USAR
France
France
USA
I believe that this may be the absolute cringiest film ever, bar none, and no other genre but horror — so, so very ahead of its time, as well. Such a brilliant commentary.
Will this be the most controversial review I have ever written (so far) in Letterboxd? Believe me, I tried to make it as objective, unbiased, and respectful as possible. I'm ready in case if anybody wants to cancel me 🙍
I remember at some point in my adolescence I got to see this film directed by the very divisive Neil LaBute. At that time I remembered it boring and without any sense to the point of thinking it was another bad movie of the bunch, one of those that you can find on any TV channel, but well, it is normal that when we are in puberty we see, think and feel things very differently compared to when we reach…
86/100
[Currently revisiting some favorite 1997 U.S. releases that I hadn't seen since around that time, in preparation for an A.V. Club "It was 20 years ago today" retrospective. For the most part, I'm just gonna make a few quick notes and then cut/paste what I wrote back then, because I've already fallen like a week behind with updates.]
• Try to imagine this film coming out today. I frankly cannot.
• By the same token, people younger than about 30 must have no concept of what a huge deal LaBute briefly appeared to be. Nurse Betty was even in Competition at Cannes!
• In any event, this holds up surprisingly well, especially given LaBute's subsequent downward spiral. Crucially, the film recognizes that…
More blunt than I'd remembered and better for it. Years and years before the term "toxic masculinity" found its way in the cultural zeitgeist, Neil LaBute made a film which perfectly encapsulates every facet of it. As urgent and incisive today as it was 20 years ago.
If you wonder how Aaron Eckhart was so impressive in The Dark Knight as "Two Face"....you should check out his first ever starring role...In The Company of Men. In this one he demonstrates his "two faced nature". His character seems to both love and hate women at the same time. When a co-worker is dumped....Eckhart comes up with a plan to have both guys wine and dine a "wallflower".....and then dump her just so they can "hurt her". They pick a pretty but handicapped secretary at their work for their "game". Eckhart's character is probably one of the worst characters in the history of movies....evil to the core.
This is a hard movie to like....as the subject matter is truly disturbing. But you have to give all the actors and actresses credit for being very believable. Not a movie I will ever watch again....but it is worth viewing it least once.
A darkly comedic film all about how unpleasant it is being in the working place, one that only reflects a harsher reality from showing the employees as they are. This is a film all about the evils present within a space that feels mandatory to the way we all move forward in life and how it breaks human spirit in the process. When you know that already about playwright Neil LaBute’s directorial debut, it already gives you an insight about what watching In the Company of Men will be like - for everything about it that we find so funny also reflects a darker reality that perhaps may be invisible to our own eyes because it is made to feel…
47
I'm not going to act like there's nothing to In the Company of Men, especially in regards to its crackling language and the stellar dynamics between Eckhart, Malloy, and Edwards, but later films have gone above and beyond this both in complexity of masculinity and its formal rhythms. I'm just tired.
the opposite of dated, even if in 2023 having aaron eckhart play a character named "Chad Piercewell" feels about as on-the-nose as nostrils
Let's hurt somebody.
So, I'm bi. This is something I've talked about a handful of times on this site. I like both women and men. To like men, I have to, y'know, like men. And I do, more often than not. However, here and there, I come across behavior, news, what have you that stops me in my tracks and leaves me feeling shame about my sex. In the Company of Men so perfectly captures subtle and overt misogyny and toxic masculinity that it more often than not hurts to watch, but from that perspective, it's an important feature. The three main performances are all solid, Aaron Eckhart especially shining by making every possible decision he can to make his…
Neil LaBute stormed out of the gates with this scathing depiction of toxic masculinity 20 years before the term gained traction in the popular lexicon. Watching today, it’s frightening just how incisive this film was, and remains. The two company men, Chad and Howard, are on opposite sides of the spectrum when it comes to machismo, but are equally insidious characters, professioncels, if you will.
Aaron Eckhart fucking nails the smooth-talking, narcissistic ball-breaker, his presence that of a shark circling shallow waters for easy prey, the taste of blood fresh in mouth. Matt Malloy’s Howard is a different beast, the male archetype whose existence is essentially typified by what we now refer to as incel culture. You know the type,…
“Women! Inside they’re all the same: just meat, gristle and hatred.” – Chad (Aaron Eckhart)
Hollow men
In an impressive debut feature, writer-director Neil LaBute presents a study of toxic masculinity (before the terms was coined) with a side order of brutal critique of corporate psychopathy and alpha-dog posturing. Chad and Howard (Matt Malloy) are sent on a six-week secondment by their company to an unnamed city, and Chad suggests that they select a vulnerable girl, and that both men should pursue and seduce her, before unceremoniously dumping her. Encountering an introverted deaf typist, Christine (Stacy Edwards), at the secondment, Chad selects her as a perfect mark, and these princes-among-men begin romantic pursuits.
In both men’s wooing of Christine is…
