Jumping on the bandwagon isn’t something I usually do, but this week it seemed a bit inevitable. Performance art isn’t something a lot of people are into or even notice. It’s an acquired taste, one that I quite enjoy and something Shia LaBeouf has come to be known for.
No matter how you feel about Shia’s acting skills or even his art skills, his latest exhibit titled ALL MY MOVIES, or #ALLMYMOVIES, I’m not really sure on the typology, was one that really caught the public’s eye. The concept being simple enough, Shia would watch all of his films backwards in chronological order. On the surface many people looked at this and thought, big whoop. What they didn’t care to take into account is the emotional and physical toll it most definitely had on Shia, but also the one it would take on us as fans and viewers.
Anyone born in the 90s can tell you how Shia LaBeouf was a major part of their adolescence. We often forget that he is a part of that very exclusive group of former Disney channel stars. Early 2000s after school television binge sessions heavily featured his curly mop of a head and his pre-pubescent screams. If that weren’t enough he starred in the film adaptation of the book we were all forced to read in elementary, "Holes." You knew the corny rap they made, you knew all the word's to Madame Zeroni’s song, and the fact that Stanley Yelnats was the weirdest name in the world.
Shia has starred in so many movies, some good some bad as he himself seemed to recognize during his 50-hour experiment. He fell asleep during "Transformers," which I thought was very, very meta, but was smiling from ear to ear during "Holes" and "The Even Stevens Movie." The entire ordeal was live streamed so I decided I’d watch the two films myself as I watched him, and I had a few realizations.
As a teen Shia acted in both comedies and dramas, but now as an adult we’ve only seen him in dramas. The media likes to claim that actors like Shia do this to distance themselves from their work as children and to get more “adult” acting jobs. In regards to these two films, as an observer I don’t think that is the case with Shia. It seems that he’s had a steady progression and that his tastes simply changed. Holes isn’t exactly a children’s tale, it’s about a young boy falsely convicted who’s then shipped off to a youth prison camp that treats teens like slaves.
Watching the live stream Shia definitely perked up when watching these films. He was wide awake and laughing, becoming adorably embarrassed at the music video that played at the end of the "Even Stevens" Movie. When someone uses the word dated, just point them to that little gem. Shia may have used this exhibition as a tool to look at his previous work and decide where he’s going to go next, but it was also just nice to look back and see how much time has passed. For all of us.
We we’re kids when he started acting, and we’ve seen him grow and we’ve grown along with him. I think that’s why a lot of us have such a strong love for Miley Cyrus, Hilary Duff, Josh Peck, and just so many others. We love them and we’re rooting for them. Shia is just another one of our heroes, who lets their freak flag fly.
