Rating: *****So far as movies go, Exit Through the Gift Shop is pretty darn close to perfection. Sure there’s the *wink*wink* maybe it isn’t entirely non-fictional debate, or the postulating that thing is really an elaborate prank on the part of British street artist Banksy on the art world, but sometimes, when you have this good a time at the movies, you don’t ask questions. Is Exit a phoney? A great big phoney? I don’t know, but I got my fingers crossed under the truth is stranger than fiction clause.
What really matters is that Exit Through the Gift Shop is as funny as a movie about graffiti, self-promotion and the perils of inspiration can get. The film, while being shot by French transplant to Los Angeles Thierry Guetta, was edited by Banksy himself. If the name Banksy sounds familiar, it may be because he’s one of the world’s most well known street artists. He’s the guy that replaced Elizabeth II with Diana Princess of Wales on several 10£ notes. He also graffitied the wall dividing Israel and the West Bank. In other words, he’s not like one of the kids that spray paints his initials on the side of the corner store last night.
The thing about Exit is that Thierry had tremendous access to some of the greats that lead the movement to legitimize street art since the turn of the century. It was kismet after all seeing as how his cousin is the infamous Space Invader. In L.A., through his cousin Invader, Thierry was introduced to Shepard Fairey. Fairey’s most recent claim to fame was that he was the designer who came up with the iconic red and blue image of President Barack Obama back when he was just candidate Obama. Prior to that though Fairey was known for the omnipresent caricature of Andre the Giant with the word ‘Obey’ underneath it.
Eventually, Thierry was introduced to the man himself – Banksey – which if you’re making a documentary about street art is like getting the Master Leonardo in your doc about Renaissance art. What nobody knew at the time though, was despite the fact Thierry was getting all this remarkable, historic footage, he was just sticking the tapes in one of numerous plastic totes and never looking at the results of all those nights on the streets of L.A., Paris, and London, filming street art.
Banksy was kind enough to share some of Thierry’s eventually edited film in Exit and let’s just say that it was a work of such sensory overload that it would have made Noriega surrender. Still, this is where seeds of doubt start to grow: was Thierry, despite his passion and enthusiasm, really this inept?
What happens next is almost beyond belief as Thierry pursues his own street art under the nom de plume Mr. Brainwash (or MBW if you like). But Thierry gets bored with the dull, hard work of building a street rep and fast forwards to putting together a gallery show that would convert the old CBS Studios in the greatest schmorgesborg of pop art the scene has ever known. Does it work? Why spoil the whole movie?
The focus of the film is on this man who goes from zero to art world phenomenon and he basically falls bass ackwards in order to do it. One can read some inherent criticisms of the mainstream art world and the group-think manner in which it decides what’s now and what’s important, and how Thierry became a dupe or an accomplice in this process. Whether or not Thierry is a performance art piece by the man behind the curtain (and the movie) doesn’t matter because the message is the same. Banksy himself just seems amused.
If nothing else, you can read Exit Through the Gift Shop as another inspirational tale of pursuing your love of art and doing so in complete disregard of legitimacy, legalities, or even talent and insight. The point is to create, and maybe to take care with whom you give inspiration. As for the movie itself, if all you take away from it is a good time, then the rest doesn’t matter. At least that’s the Thierry philosophy as far as can gleam it.
