10 Movies That Lied So Much They Told The Truth

Honey Boy is a quasi-biopic of Shia LaBeouf's life as a young actor, where stand-in protagonist Otis Lort (Noah Jupe/Lucas Hedges) is abused by his father James (in an odd psychological exercise, played by LaBeouf himself) and whose alcoholism lands him on the wrong side of the law.

It doesn't take much observation to see that the script, written by LaBeouf, has clear parallels with the actor's own alleged abusive childhood, as well as his public issues with substance abuse and numerous brushes with the law.

But last year, three years after the film received significant critical acclaim, LaBeouf appeared on Jon Bernthal's Real Ones podcast and revealed that he made up everything about his father being abusive, calling it "f**king nonsense." LaBeouf said:

"My dad was so loving to me my whole life. Fractured, sure. Crooked, sure. Wonky, for sure. But never was not loving, never was not there. He was always there… and I'd done a world press tour about how f**ked he was as a man... My dad never hit me, never. He spanked me once, one time. And the story that gets painted in Honey Boy is this dude is abusing his kid all the time... Honey Boy is basically a big 'woe is me' story about how fucked my father is, and I wronged him."

It was certainly a shocking revelation, yet ultimately only further compounded that Honey Boy was a study of a deeply troubled person trying to prevail over their demons.

If the film was a chance for viewers to get a window into LaBeouf's life and mindset, then the news that he contrived a huge portion of it makes it no less truthful an account of who LaBeouf is - in its own twisted way.