By Rob N. LeDonne

The past two weekends at the box office, a little movie called Disturbia has been making a whole lot of noise, beating stiff competition (Bruce Willis! Halle Berry!) and coming out number one twice since it’s release. Of course, the thriller deserves an audience, since it’s just a downright good film.

Young star Shia LeBeouf has been having quite a career, first starring in the Disney Channel’s Even Stevens (and winning an Emmy for his work), then going onto family films Holes and The Greatest Game Ever Played. Now, at 21, he has grown into darker, more adult fare. His last film in theaters was Bobby, in which he showed that he has definitely departed from his Disney image – stripping down naked while hallucinating on drugs.

All this aside, LeBeouf gives a fantastic performance as Kale, a young man who loses his father and then heads down a path of trouble. He winds up in court for punching his Spanish teacher in a fit of rage and is put under house arrest. Cooped up in his house, the film turns into a cross between a standard teen sex comedy, such as Risky Business or Porkys and the Hitchcock classic Rear Window – in other words, equal doses of laughs and fright. As the film twists and turns, LeBeouf and his costars do a superb job with the sudden mood changes. Carrie-Ann Moss of Matrix fame plays LeBeouf’s worried mother and David Morse (16 Blocks) does well as the is-he-or-isn’t-he murderer next door.

DJ Caruso directs the picture and has a flair for making it interesting, despite the fact that 80 percent of it takes place in Kale’s bedroom. From a brutal first scene to its funny center and back to brutal again, Disturbia should definitely be checked out, if not for the great story then just to watch LeBeouf act. With him appearing in the upcoming Transformers and Surf’s Up films along with landing a highly coveted role in next summer’s Indiana Jones follow-up, LeBeouf is quickly turning into the next big thing.

GRADE: A-