In Neil LaBute’s “The Shape of Things,” Evelyn (Rachel Weisz) stages a performance as brutal and grotesque as many of LaBute’s prior films. Her defense: she is an artist and “moralists have no place in an art gallery.” This is, of course, LaBute addressing his audiences who have often criticized his films for presenting no likable characters.
With his first two films, “In the Company of Men” and “Your Friends & Neighbors”, LaBute imparts uniquely immoral universes in which characters are knowingly cruel and don’t seem to care. Sometimes his characters will be amoral — delusional as to how their behavior affects other people —
