I’ll give Shia LaBeouf this: when his acting career went down the tubes and his personal struggles kept landing him in trouble with the law, he didn’t descend into straight-to-video purgatory. Instead, LaBeouf has struggled mightily to prove to all of us that he is a serious artist, and yet faceplants harder and harder every time he attempts to do so.
After plagiarizing Dan Clowes for a short film, gave a plagiarized apology, then criticized copyright laws rather than acknowledge he had initially tried to pass someone else’s creativity off as his own, and finally went out on a red carpet wearing a paper bag on his head with the word “I am not famous anymore.” It would all be funny if it weren’t such an obvious train wreck with the conductor crying, "No, this twisted mess of fiery wreckage and human carnage is intentional!"
LaBeouf, unable to dust himself off, realize that his time as a leading man has passed and perhaps it’s time to get back in the game through supporting roles (like his strong turn in Fury last year) desperately wants people to keep looking at him, and he's working hard at turning narcissism into an art, so he’s launched #allmymovies. The project: A video camera watches LaBeouf watching his movies. He’s not commenting on them (at least not from what I’ve seen). He’s not pointing out what it was like working with Michael Bay or what he’s learned during his time as a professional actor over the past 15 years. It’s just him looking at a screen, and we’re just taking his word that these are his movies. He could just be watching static.
At this point, I’m sure we’re supposed to marvel at LaBeouf’s position as artist related to his work and the distinction between piece and performer. Unfortunately, based on LaBeouf’s record, it seems more like a desperate play for attention rather than something that’s worth serious attention.
However, if you’re seduced by this endeavor, you can join him for the next three days (although the site appears to be down at the moment) as he watches all his movies consecutively in reverse chronological order, 24 hours a day. You can even watch him in person if you’re at the Angelika Film Center in New York City. If you do, please go during Kingdom of the Crystal sKull and loudly say, “I like when you swing from the vines like a monkey!”