Indie film stalwart Neil LaBute is set to receive a career honor at the Oldenburg International Film Festival, which will dedicate a retrospective to the American filmmaker and playwright and host the world premiere of his latest film, Murderous.
LaBute will attend the German festival with Murderous lead actress Gia Crovatin (I Feel Pretty).
The retrospective will span LaBute’s nearly three-decade career, screening his 1997 debut In the Company of Men, Your Friends & Neighbors (1998), Nurse Betty (2000), Some Velvet Morning (2013), and House of Darkness (2022).
Murderous stars Crovatin as a up-and-coming screenwriter who gets an unwanted visit from an ex. The indie thriller is a low-budget effort from LaBute made entirely independently, with no studio or distributor attached.
LaBute exploded onto the independent film scene with In the Company of Men, an adaptation of his own play, the story of two businessmen (Aaron Eckhart and Matt Malloy) who cruelly plotting to woo and them emotionally destroy a deaf woman, played by Stacy Edwards. The film won the filmmakers award in Sundance and was picked up by Sony Pictures Classics.
Both it and LaBute’s follow-up, Your Friends & Neighbors (1998), featuring Eckhart, Ben Stiller, Catherine Keener, Nastassja Kinski, and Jason Patric, were cross-over hits.
Since then, LaBute has ranged across genres and budget levels. He hit a commercial high with the dark comedy Nurse Betty, starring Renée Zellweger, Morgan Freeman and Chris Rock, which grossed $30 million worldwide, and his 2006 reboot of horror classic The Wicker Man, starring Nicolas Cage, though the latter was eviscerated by die-hard fans of Robin Hardy’s 1973 original.
The prolific writer-director has continued to adapt his own work for the screen (The Shape of Things, Some Velvet Morning) and work as a director-for-hire for TV, on such shows as AMC’s Hell on Wheels and Showtime’s Billions.
Announcing the tribute, the Oldenburg Festival praised LaBute’s unflinching view of the world.
“Neil LaBute does not believe in innocence. In his films and plays, no piece of small talk is without the potential to become a weapon,” it said. “Since his debut In the Company of Men (1997), he has explored how cruelty takes root in offices, marriages and circles of friends — usually in passing, often disguised as ordinary conversation. Few other American filmmakers have so consistently distrusted politeness.”
The 33rd Oldenburg International Film Festival runs from Sept. 16-20.
English (US) ·