Neil LaBute has spent three decades toggling between critical acclaim and heated controversy. The playwright burst onto the film scene with two sharply observed indie darlings — In the Company of Men (1997) and Your Friends & Neighbors (1998) — that earned festival buzz and positioned him as a fearless voice in contemporary drama, while also labeling him a misogynist, mainly because of the horrible words he put into his male characters’ mouths. LaBute parlayed that notoriety into mainstream success with the dark-comedy hit Nurse Betty (2000), which showcased Renée Zellweger, Morgan Freeman and Chris Rock, and proved he could handle…
