Obviously Jim Gaffigan’s titular character in HowardCantour.com is supposed to be annoying, but is the film itself supposed to be annoying. The music is grating, trying to get the viewer agitated; LaBeouf’s direction is desperate as well. This short isn’t supposed to be pedestrian, so instead it’s tiresome.

There are a lot of problems. First, Gaffigan’s no good. He’s making fun of pretentious Internet critics, but apparently not the ones who mock LaBeouf’s big budget pictures. It’d be a lot more fun if the short were based on Armond White than some plagiarism of a Daniel Clowes comic.

As a director, LaBeouf hasn’t got anything particular about him. Except the annoying music and the slo-mo effects he uses to make the music more irritating.

Portia Doubleday is bad as one of Gaffigan’s sidekicks, but Thomas Lennon is fine as the other one.

Big names, some (fake?) controversy, bad film.

Not Recommended

CREDITS

Directed by Shia LaBeouf; screenplay by LaBeouf, based on a comic by Daniel Clowes; director of photography, Matthew Irving; production designer, Chris Giammalvo; produced by Jeff Balis, T.J. Sakasegawa and Rhoades Rader.

Starring Jim Gaffigan (Howard Cantour), Thomas Lennon (Rocco Eppley), Portia Doubleday (Dakota) and Dito Montiel (Holly Pondyoke).