Wednesday April 18th, 2019 marked the 16th anniversary of one of my favorite movies of all time being made Holes!
When I was 12 I was obsessed with this movie. I had first heard about this movie because of the Disney Channel. They used to show the commercials for this movie all the time due to Shia LaBouf playing the lead role in the movie. This intrigued me so I decided to check it out. So when my mom and my sister’s best friend’s mom decided to go see the movie I tagged along. After that night I became obsessed with this movie and never looked back. When the soundtrack came out I loved that too. It had hit after hit on it (or at least in my 12-year-old opinion). Once the movie came out on DVD I would watch this movie religiously like it was the greatest thing on Earth (which it was to me). Everyday in 6th & 7th grade I spent every afternoon after school watching this movie with a big bowl of Cheerios in my room. This was a great time and I loved every minute of it.
So Why Do You Love This Movie So Much:
I love the spirit of this movie, the characters and the story. This is the story of a boy Stanley who is down on his luck due to his family and is just in the wrong place at the wrong time. He is fat and bullied and just sad. I mean being a teenager or just a person that story is very relatable. Then to watch this kid meet these other kids in the D-Tent who are dealing with the same things and worse and becoming friends with them was great. It felt like they supported each other because they have had the world come down on them for the life they have had to live. It was also awesome to see Stanley help Zero aka Hector Zeroni with this reading and writing and trying to be a true friend to him till the end of the movie when they find the treasure. None of these boys had anyone to depend on but each other and the way they came together to help each other was awesome.
I also love all the actors/actress, and the music of the movie as well. This movie had a stacked line up of dope actors & actress who were all incredible in this movie. First you had Shia LaBouf who came from Disney Channel at the time playing Louis Stevens on Even Stevens. He played Stanley and would go on after this to play in other various roles including his biggest role to date in the Transformer movies before becoming an artiste social justice warrior who cut away from Hollywood making artiste indie movies but is now back in hollywood bring his artiste style to the big screen. Then you had established actors like Jon Voight who as we know is Angelina Joles dad, Tim Blake-Nelson from “Oh! Brother Where Are Though, the incredible Sigourney Weaver & Patricia Arquette, Rick Fox, Dulé Hill, the Fonz himself Henry Winkler, Eartha Kitt and so many others. It also made stars out of some of the D-Tent boys most notably Khleo Thomas who played Zero.
The soundtrack also had some fire tracks on it including the track made for the movie called Dig It produced by the legendary emcee Doug E. Fresh. You had Shaggy on the soundtrack with Keepin’ It Real which matched the movie well, Moby, Eels, Eagle Eye Cherry, Dr. John, Little Axe and so many others. They also made a song for the movie called If Only which was the little chant that Madam Zeroni made Stanley’s great-great-grandfather say.
What Are The Boys of the D-Tent Doing Today:
Shia LaBeouf aka Caveman:
In 2016, LaBeouf starred in American Honey, directed by Andrea Arnold, playing the male lead role, Jake. In 2017 he portrayed the legendary tennis player John McEnroe, in the Swedish sports drama Borg McEnroe. In 2019 he starred in the movie Peanut Butter Falcon about a young man with Down syndrome who escapes from an assisted living facility and befriends a wayward fisherman on the run; as the two men form a rapid bond, a social worker attempts to track them. Also soon to come out is the auto-biographical movie Honey Boy where we see Shia LaBeouf playing his own father in the story of their life and Shia’s start in the entertainment industry. He is also doing a lot of work with The Slauson Recreation Center which is to be a venue for the youth to get into acting and to community theater and bring the sacredness back into the theater. He invites those he knows with influence in the industry to come and support this and the low-income youth.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0479471/
Khleo Thomas aka Zero:
In 2013, Thomas released his official clothing line titled “Slick Living Apparel” which is branded off his label Slick Living Inc. He makes Holes inspired apparel and other clothing & accessory items. He makes inspiring and somewhat funny videos on Instagram and preaches about being Aware instead of “woke” and makes apparel for the women called Goddess Living Amongst Men as well as his Awarewolves collection. He also worked on music for the past 10 years before giving it up in 2017. Khleo Thomas has continued his acting career and has had small parts in Parenthood, Sons of Anarchy, Being Mary Jane and Shameless. He even has been a few more movies like Soy Nero & Anywhere With You were we saw Khleo do a song for the soundtrack in a return to his music. He has also met up with his former Holes co-stars recently at a few events including Tim Blake Nelson who played Dr. Pendanski & Jon Voight Mr. Sir. Recently Khleo was cast in the live action version of the anime My Hero Academia called UA:LA playing the villain Veil produced by Chris Cowan.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1169490/
Brenden Jefferson aka X-Ray, Jake M. Smith aka Squid, Byron Cotton aka Armpit, Miguel Castro aka Magnet:
Not much is out there about what these guys did after Holes but I wanted to shout out them out anyway.
Brendon Jefferson:
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0420180/
Jake M. Smith:
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1366311/
Bryron Cotton:
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1168875/
Miguel Castro:
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1008574/
Max Kasch aka Zig-Zag:
Max Kasch teamed up with Shia LaBeouf after Holes in The Greatest Game Ever Played (classic!) and had a part in Whiplash. When he isn’t acting, he is writing and performing music.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1045739/
Noah Poletiek aka Twitch:
The last member of the D-Tent to become apart of the crew. Noah Poletiek only did one other movie after Holes called The Blue Light and has been pretty inactive since then.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1176350/
Before I go I have to talk about the Holes “Dig-It” song. The song was produced by the legendary hip-hop and beatbox icon Doug E. Fresh. I played this song on repeat everyday. I had so many Holes Soundtrack cds just due to playing the cd to death and it would get scratched up and I’d make my mom buy me a new one each time. I had a journal at the time that I used to write the lyrics in and tried to make up my own lyrics to the song it was truly a time.
Well after 16 years this movie still goes hard and I will always have a soft spot for it.
More Holes Content:
Till Next Time…*hits with shovel* D-I-G!
The Life & Times of Ice 