Man Down trailer: Shia LaBeouf is at his career best opposite Gary Oldman in new war film

He gives an 'authentic, hard-to-watch' performance

Mark my words, the rise of Shia LaBeouf, for which I don’t yet have a term as snappy as the McConnaissance, is real.

After the Transformers nadir and not always convincing performance art phase, the actor has shown his talent with more art house-leaning roles in Nymphomaniac and American Honey recently.

His next film will be Man Down, in which he plays a soldier carrying a heavy burden after a stint in the Middle East, with Variety saying that the performance is the kind “seldom seen since the days of Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift”.

One scene opposite Gary Oldman looks particularly intense, with LaBeouf tonguing his cheek as he recalls a horrifying raid.

His Marine protagonist returns home from a tour of duty in Afghanistan and finds himself searching for his wife (Kate Mara) and son (Charlie Shotwell), aided by a friend and fellow Marine (Jai Courtney) whose trigger-happy approach to conflict resolution is not always helpful.

The trailer is set to TV on the Radio’s ‘DLZ’, which you may remember being used to great effect in Breaking Bad.

Man Down was directed by Dito Montiel, who’s last movie was the Robin Williams-starrer Boulevard. It opens in cinemas 2 December.