Hey Wisecrack! Jared here.
And today, we’re exploring the bizarre antics of
movie star / performance artist / internet meme
Shia LaBeouf.
Shia: "DO IT!"
"DO IT!"
"JUST DO IT!"
"DO IT!"
"DO IT! "DdoO IitT!!!" "DO IT" "Do It!" "do it!"
While Shia is perhaps best known for his breakout role in Evens Stevens
and his later commercial successes
it's been his smaller projects and erratic off-screen antics that have transformed him
from a movie star into a kind of meme artist.
"When the seagulls..."
*gulp*
"...follow the trawler..."
*wipe*
...it is because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea."
Thank you very much
Growing up is hard, especially for child actors
and Shia is no exception.
His life of fame seems to have left him with very few boundaries
and an almost masochistic love of self-mockery.
When musician Rob Cantor wanted to shoot a music video
for his song about a rampaging cannibal known as Shia-LaBeouf
♫ Shia LaBeouf! ♫
Shia was not only willing to participate
but, suggested that he reenact the clapping scene from Citizen Kane.
Why does Shia have his own entry on the knowyourmeme.com?
Is he just another actor like William Shatner
or Chuck Norris who is willing to cash in on his fame through self-parody
or, is something else going on here?
Shia: "I went through, like, an existential crisis
Ellen: "Uh-huh"
Shia: "Which turned into some kind of like uh..."
"...e-exploration, really."
Welcome to this Wisecrack edition on the Philosophy of
Shia LaBeouf.
For nearly a decade Shia Labeouf has bounced from one tabloid scandal to another.
Back in 2007, he was arrested in a Chicago Walgreens on his 21st birthday.
Shia: "I got pretty wasted in Chicago"
"and wound up celebrating in Walgreens."
In 2011, he was recorded getting in a fight outside a bar in Vancouver
but wasn't arrested.
And in 2014 , after “drinking a lot of whiskey,”
Shia: "So, I had been drinking a lot of whiskey."
LaBeouf interrupted a performance of Cabaret
by accosting Alan Cumming as he was making his way to the stage.
Alan: "He was just wasted."
"And he, like, whacked me."
"He did say that the reason he did it"
"was that I was the 'sexiest man' he had ever seen, so
*cautious audience laughter*
But his most significant controversy occurred when he plagiarized Daniel Clowes comic
"Justin M Damiano"
using it as the basis for his 2012 short film
Howard Cantour.com.
After HowardCantour.com premiered at Cannes
it was released online where fans of Clowes’ comic
inevitably found it and tore it apart.
Exposed, Labeouf needed an excuse to explain himself.
First, he tried to explain the plagiarism as an act of “postmodern” re-appropriation
claiming that he was undermining the idea of originality and authorship
Shia: "I was looking to, you know, uh..."
"Take this shit off of my shoulders, you know?"
"So, I found this discourse and sort of ran with that
but that didn’t really work out
so he tried to apologize
but that didn’t cut it either.
At this point, Shia turned to an obscure art movement called metamodernism for help.
Postmodernism?
Metamodernism?
(What the hell is the difference?)
Let me explain.
An easy way to grasp the difference between
postmodernism and metamodernism
is to think about Hollywood movies.
An example of a postmodern movie would be Ryan Reynolds' Deadpool
a film we've talked about before.
Deadpool: "I'm touching myself tonight."
A traditional superhero like Spiderman believes in big ideas like
justice, responsibility, and truth with an absolute sincerity.
Uncle Peter: "With great power, comes great responsibility"
Deadpool says fuck all that.
Colossus: "Be a hero."
"The way we..."
*vomits*
There are no big ideas worth believing in.
For the merc with a mouth
the idea of truth and sincerity is just a movie cliche
to be lampooned as he massacres "bad guys"
for strictly personal reasons.
Deadpool: "Okay guys. Let's get out there and make a difference."
What about metamodernism?
What the hell does THAT mean?
If traditional Hollywood heroes embody sincere values
while postmodern heroes wholly reject such ideas
then metamodernist ones fall in between
a kind of sincerity that is communicated
through an insincere distancing.
Confusing?
Yeah, this stuff can get a bit nebulous.
The best example of a metamodernist movie would be Harmony Korine’s batshit crazy
Spring Breakers.
Our heros are four bikini clad girls on a hedonistic rampage.
We follow them as they plunge into
sex, drugs, and debauchery.
And yet, despite over-the-top depravity of the party scenes
the girls describe their experiences as a sincere process of
self improvement and self discovery.
"We saw some beautiful things here."
"I mean, everyone was so sweet here."
"So warm and friendly."
Juxtaposing the quasi-spiritual tone of the girl’s monologue
with images of indulgence
or mass murder
may seem ironic
"You met people who are just...like us."
"Who's way more than just having a good time."
but the girl’s epiphanies are 100% authentic.
In true metamodernist fashion
Spring Breakers uses an ironic, insincere approach to communicate something
absolutely serious.
After spending months defending himself online
Labeouf came to the realization that
neither clever jokes nor genuine explanation
were good enough.
He needed to do something that would show everybody that he really was sorry.
He needed to be vulnerable.
Shia: "I had read this 'metamodern' uh manifesto."
"Which...really touched me."
So Labeouf created his first metamodernist artwork entitled
#IAMSORRY
a performance art installation in LA
where he invited the public to join him in his sorrow.
Audience members were to enter the mostly empty gallery
pick out a prop like
an Indiana Jones whip
a bottle of Jack Daniels
a Transformer
and then sit across from LaBeouf
who was wearing that infamous paper bag over his head.
He wanted to show contrition
but like Spring Breakers
he delivered the apology so that the audience would hold it at a distance
making it not entirely sincere, but not entirely
insincere.
It's all the distance and irony of postmodernism
with all the sincerity of a classic narrative.
Most didn’t understand what they were seeing or what it meant.
Attendee: "Definitely pretty weird."
But encountering an apologizing, sometimes crying, Shia LaBeouf in an LA art gallery
encountering a scene that was both
sincere and ironic at the same time
gave them a decidedly metamodernist experience.
Rocco: "He was emotionally 'pouring-out' the whole time."
And even if they didn’t understand it
they felt it.
Attendee: "Everyone thinks he's so crazy,...but..."
"........"
"It seemed like the least crazy thing I've seen him do in a while."
The spectacle of Shia didn’t end with an apology, instead, the hashtags and stunts
kept coming.
And in each case the performances were both ironic and sincere at the same time.
His “meditation for narcissists”
an hour long session wherein LaBeouf jumped rope in front of a mirror
was both self-mocking and truly meditative.
His work entitled
#INTERVIEW
was both a simple minded stunt
and an hour long exploration of uncomfortable intimacy.
His work
#TOUCHMYSOUL
was both ironic and sincere.
Shia: "Hi, you've reached LaBeouf, Rönkkö & Turner."
"Can you touch my soul?"
And perhaps his most memeable work
#INTRODUCTIONS
was meant to be a shallow viral sensation
while simultaneously communicating true feelings.
Shia: "NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE!"
#INTRODUCTIONS, wasn’t originally meant to be an absurd version of a motivational speech
Shia: "DO IT!"
but rather was a collaborative film project created with the help of 36 film students.
Shia and his collaborators asked the students to submit short monologues for LaBeouf to read
while standing in front of a green screen.
Each monologue had to evoke a feeling
…any feeling.
The students’ work was naïve even sentimental
yet LaBeouf’s performance in front of the green screen
was coldly calculated.
Shia: "Everytime I see a man on a motorbike..."
"...I think it's my dad."
The work was both a viral PR stunt and
entirely heartfelt.
And that's what metamodernism is
It's a mix of
shallow self-promotion and intimacy.
It’s a process where the bland and the commercial
is made uncomfortable and even dangerous.
A metamodernist moment is when what is designed to numb you
turns around
breaks
makes you feel something.
In a world where we’re all cynical
we like to think that we can hold ideas like
Uncle Ben’s famous line about responsibility, at a distance.
What metamodernism does is agree with us.
It encourages us to be cynical
but then surprises us by making us feel the guilt we would have felt
if we’d taken Uncle Ben seriously.
LaBeouf’s performances aim to make you take him seriously.
He wants to take your cynicism about his fame and persona
and turn it against you.
Shia is like the girls from Spring Breakers.
They too come off as trivial people who don’t have to be taken seriously
but they turn out to be very dangerous and impossible to ignore.
So what do you think?
Is Shia LaBeouf a bold new voice taking performance art to the next level?
Or is he just a bored celebrity pulling pranks on us all?
Let us know what you think in the comments.
Shia: "I know I can't single-handedly save the world"
"but I'd like to, like, try."
Hey guys, thanks for watching!
Remember, we're working on more videos like this one
So, to find out when they're released
Smack Alan Cummings sexy self to visit our channel page
and Subscribe.
Shia: "JUST DO IT!!"
And if you find the stuff we make interesting and insightful
You're going to love another channel called
"the Nerdwriter"
Our buddy Evan over there
produces beautiful, eyeopening video essays
all about understanding art, movies, culture, and so much more.
Click here to visit his channel page
and Subscribe.
And since we're talking about the unconventional
go check out his awesome video on creative title sequences.
Exploring the fascinating world of "film packaging."
How artists give movies their iconic look in the opening and closing credits.
It's pretty awesome.
Alright, I gotta go work on the next Wisecrack edition
Which may or may not feature a little bit more "Rick and Morty."
Wubalubadubdub!
Thanks again for the support y'all.
Peace ☮