The movie then cuts to a scene of Howard sitting in a restaurant with Dakota (Portia Doubleday), a young review critic.

Dakota then approaches the two men and asks their opinion about the film, to which Rocco says that he would be posting a mixed review.

Well, both open with exactly the same monologue from their eponymous leads: "A critic is a warrior, and each of us on the battlefield have the means to glorify or demolish (whether a film, a career, or an entire philosophy) by influencing perception in ways that if heartfelt and truthful, can have far-reaching repercussions."

In Clowes', the freelance critic explains that the director "so perfectly gets how we're really all like these aliens who can never have any meaningful contact with each other because we're all so caught up in our own little self-made realities, you know?"

"[2] He later issued several apologies to Clowes via Twitter, who responded by saying that "The first I ever heard of the film was this morning when someone sent me a link.

[8] Upon its initial premiere at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival Howard Cantour.com received a large amount of critical acclaim.

[10] Howard Cantour.com also received some praise when it was released to the Internet,[11] but has since experienced a backlash due to LaBeouf's plagiarism of Clowes' comic.