With more than 20 years in the business under his belt, Shia LaBeouf has crafted for himself one hell of a resumé. At 34, LaBeouf’s varied career has already gone through three major chapters — the Disneyfied tween star, the big studio hotshot, and the actor conducting a careful search for authenticity — and it’s possible he’s headed into another soon. Every chapter has molded LaBeouf, made him the dedicated, near-Method actor we see today in movies like Honey Boy and The Tax Collector, the latter of which was recently released.
As such, there is no actor currently working today who could reasonably be compared to LaBeouf; his talent and skill are unlike any of his peers. He is an actor who lives onscreen with his whole heart exposed, giving himself over to his roles so completely that he risks disappearing inside them for good. Of course, he never truly disappears because, at the end of the day, this is LaBeouf we’re talking about. His public persona is just as present in every role as the fictional persona he takes on.
In honor of The Tax Collector‘s release, I’m taking a look at 22 of LaBeouf’s biggest roles to date and re-assessing them, ranking them from worst to best. “But Allie,” you’re shouting as you read this, “we all know Shia LaBeouf has 60 acting credits to date per IMDb, a site I unequivocally trust.” Well, that’s true, friend-o, but when you remove all of the shorts LaBeouf’s appeared in, his earlier roles where he’s appearing in small TV movie roles, anything pre-his breakout role in Holes, any roles where he appears in a few scenes and/or barely impacts the plot of the movie he’s in (see: Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle, I, Robot, Constantine, and Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd), and his voice role in Surf’s Up because seriously who cares, then we hit the magic number of 22.
Now, to be clear, I am an avowed LaBeouf fan. In my opinion, there are technically no performances that are “the worst.” But we’re ranking here so, something’s gotta give. And so, on that note, let’s take a look at LaBeouf’s performances and see how they measure up.
Allie Gemmill is the Weekend Contributing Editor for Collider. You can follow them on Twitter @_matineeidle.