SHORT FILMS
Watch: Shia LaBeouf's Short Film About A Critic - 'Howard Cantour'
by Alex Billington
December 16, 2013
Source: ShortoftheWeek
"A critic is a warrior." This short is surprisingly on-point. Actor Shia LaBeouf has been experimenting in filmmaking and one of his latest creations is a short film titled HowardCantour.com (which played in Cannes) that is, interestingly enough, a brutally honest take-down of internet movie critics (like the one currently writing this post). Jim Gaffigan gives a perfect deadpan performance as movie critic "Howard Cantour", spending his time flirting with freelancer cutie Dakota, played by Portia Doubleday. The film actually says some great things about cinema, but also does a nice job making fun of the movie critic world. That said, it's actually quite well done without being too condescending and an enjoyable watch. Have fun.
Watch Shia LaBeouf's full short film HowardCantour.com, uploaded via Short of the Week's Vimeo:
Update: Video was locked as password protected after news started to break via BuzzFeed that LaBeouf apparently plagiarized the short from a comic written and drawn by Daniel Clowes. The original short is currently inaccessible. We're now waiting for any additional statements or news about the film's status.
This short was debuted by Short of the Week (@ShortoftheWeek). Synopsis from Vimeo: "This is the story of Howard Cantour (Jim Gaffigan). A warrior, a film critic. He lives his live vicariously through movies and in movies. But Howard is no sell out, he's says it like he sees it. This is a story of his life and struggle about reviewing his film hero's movie." HowardCantour.com, the full title of the film, is directed by Shia LaBeouf (@thecampaignbook), produced by Jeff Balis & TJ Sakasegawa. In addition to Gaffigan and Doubleday, Thomas Lennon appears as does filmmaker Dito Montiel. The film played at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival in the Critics Week section, and also played the Palm Springs International & Aspen Shortsfests. Thoughts?
8 Comments
1
this is awesome,LOL
me on Dec 16, 2013
2
what ever, just as long as it keeps him from acting.
Dan Hibiki on Dec 16, 2013
3
Hilarious! "I launched 50 unstoppable megatons of Howard Cantour into the ether."
Paul T. McCain on Dec 16, 2013
4
Apparently it was easily stoppable.
209670938609387 on Jan 11, 2014
5
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/12/16/swipe-file-shia-labeouf-vs-dan-clowes/ Just found out that script was lifted from a comic book by Dan Clowes.
moosenlawyer on Dec 16, 2013
6
The reason it is password protected is because it was revealed that the entire script was stolen from a previously published work with no credit given to the author.
Langly on Dec 16, 2013
7
This entire film is a shot by shot, word for word rip from a story by Daniel Clowes: http://comicsalliance.com/shia-labeof-daniel-clowes-short-film-plagiarism/
Capital7 on Dec 16, 2013
8
Complete and utter plagiarism (scene for scene and tons of dialogue) of a Daniel Clowes' strip from The Book of Other People (ed. by Zadie Smith)
Jugmarker on Dec 16, 2013
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