My movie date with Shia LaBeouf

On a rainy Tuesday afternoon troubled film actor and performance artist Shia LaBeouf sat down in a small theater at the Angelika in SoHo to watch every single one of his movies.

At the beginning he reportedly sat alone, but soon about 30 other people joined him, and one of those people was me.

The event was being live streamed by New Hive, an online art platform, as part of some sort of performance that LaBeouf has developed a reputation for doing over the past couple of years.

LaBeouf will be marathoning every single one of his films (except for the Disney Channel original movie Tru Confessions, much to my chagrin) in reverse chronological order,according to a press release.

Before entering the theater a security guard waved a metal detector wand around me, and politely warned me to not use my phone for taking photos, filming, or really for anything at all while in the theater.

I sat down in the theater as LaBeouf’s “Man Down,” a film about a vet suffering from PTSD, was coming to a close. LaBeouf was sitting slightly behind me to my right, and a camera that was filming him (and live streaming his viewing) sat directly to my right. I half-watched the film and half-waited for something outrageous to happen, or for the right moment to stand up and scream “Just do it!”

Neither moment came.

When “Man Down” ended the lights came up and LaBeouf was nowhere to be seen, he later returned with a bag of popcorn and quietly sat down.

Riveting.

The next film on the LaBeouf roster was “Fury” which as soon as I realized was playing, immediately regretted paying for a ticket to see it last year. If I had known I could watch “Fury” for free with an actor that was in it, I would never have gone on that movie date and saved myself $15.

About a quarter of the way through the film, I came to the conclusion that this was it. Nothing exciting was likely to happen and I was suddenly very disappointed. Not even Brad Pitt’s rugged scowl could keep me in the theatre.

Just then there was a flash and I turned to see a photographer shoot a drive-by picture of LaBeouf.

“What’s he going to do? Is he gonna flip?” I asked myself.

He did nothing. So I picked up my things and left the theater.

“Are you coming back?” a theatre employee asked me.

Nope.

Would you like to watch all of Shia LaBeouf’s movies with Shia Labeouf? You have until this Thursday evening to join in on the marathon. It was pretty easy to get into when it started on Tuesday, but who knows, it could grow in popularity. Admission is free.

Matt Lee is a Web producer for Metro New York. He writes about almost everything and anything. Talk to him (or yell at him) on Twitter so he doesn’t feel lonely@mattlee2669.