User Reviews

Exit Through the Gift Shop, the first film directed by reclusive street-art legend Banksy, is a little puzzle-box of a documentary. It's perfectly designed and pitched to be enjoyable on multiple levels: on one as an entertaining, illuminating mini-history of "street art" and on another - one entirely more convoluted and entertaining - as a light-hearted "up yours" to both street artists and their patrons.

Ostensibly (to take the film's word for it) Banksy's film came about when he, as the premiere 21st Century graffiti art darling, was approached by Thierry Guetta, a French-born Los Angeleno. Guetta wanted to make a documentary about street art, and Banksy was the last major figure whose participation he felt he needed, as an affable personality, a love of video cameras and a chance relationship to Invader, a French street-art pioneer who networked with other artists like Shepard Fairey, had left Guetta with hundreds of hours of footage documenting the birth of the art.

After tracking Banksy down and shooting him working, Guetta retired to the cutting room. He emerged months later and showed it to Banksy. He didn't like the film, a couple of minutes of which are excerpted and are plainly terrible, and offered to take over Guetta's doc while Guetta returned to Los Angeles to turn himself into a street art sensation, named "Mr. Brainwash" or MBW. Transforming overnight from an affable, helpful documentarian to a one-man hype-monster artiste, MBW's enormous spraypaint cans, TV monsters and Warhol-style send-ups captured the attention of the LA art crowd, who spent over a million bucks on his stuff, much to the chagrin of Fairey and Banksy. Guetta's film about Banksy changes into Banksy's film about Guetta and street art, and the rise of a new unfortunate talent.

Except, as I and a lot of other folks believe, it's all made up. It's a hoax, it has to be, it's too hilariously perfect to be anything but. Banksy, as a street artist, has seen the perception of his works - by design temporary, and by design defacements - change from graffiti into art that needs preservation, that is cut out from walls and sold. Banksy, in making Exit Through the Gift Shop with Fairey and Guetta has found a way to deface, scrawl over and heap lighthearted disdain all over both himself and the people who snap up his art.

It's spectacular, it's brilliant and all the more so in that it's still a documentary, still a record of events. It's not artificial, not a mockumentary in the way that Spinal Tap is. MBW exists, having been created by Guetta or Banksy or both, and the film documents his arrival. Exactly who it is that arrives is the film's mystery.

Exit Through the Gift Shop captures the birth of a prank, an elaborate, entertaining gotcha that fits perfectly in Banksy's nose-tweaking, politically-aware, cheeky body of work. Moreover, the film doesn't rely on any rug-snapping-out to really work. It works if it's true, it works if it's not, because it's a construction that's above all entertaining. It's a glimpse, anyway, of a world that's built at night, by streetlight, one that's fascinating even if it is in the middle of pulling the wool over our eyes. It's genius, plain and (not so very much at all) simple.

Not that I felt the same thrill Thierry must have gotten while roaming the streets with street artists, I however admit to downloading the movie via torrent (yes its illegal), and so watched it in my own living room for anyone interested in the circumstances of the review.

Viewers should be reminded that Exit Through the Gift Shop is a documentary rather than a movie, but at the same time plays out more like an adventure movie than an educational one about street artists. Albeit being more down to earth, a fitting comparison could be Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.

Thierry Guetta is our main character and camera guy at the same time. While lurking behind the camera he tells us his intriguing story when his life took a sudden and distinct turn. He had became known as "the guy with the camera" - developing some kind of compulsive disorder after his mother passed. His argument that everything should be recorded or else abruptly might get lost at any point in life seems reasonable but his thousands of tapes, that nobody would ever watch, piled up in his basement confirms the maladaptive nature of his behavior.

His compulsive filming became a useful tool first when he met a street artist that he began to follow - filming every event of the artists creative process. He sank deeper and deeper into the world of street artists and that became sort of an addiction to Thierry. He seemed to almost forget about his wife and kids. Exit Through the Gift Shop tells us as much about street artisting as it does about Thierry himself. Despite being, as he himself points out, "a ghost behind the camera", his character truly steals the show. This is by no means a problem but rather enrich the story with a greater purpose. Thierrys meeting with Banksy and the following episodes poses a lot of interesting questions about what art really is, what it means to humans, what talent is made of and even about complex group behavior.

Despite being directed by a street artist and evidently put together from thousands of different tapes, Exit Through the Gift Shop is amazingly well directed. It doesn't feel hyped, it doesn't seem to lie or exaggerate the happenings and the fact that an interesting, motivated and special character gets to portrait everything from an outside view is fascinating to watch. My text is hardly enough to summarize it so the only tip i can give you is WATCH IT!

It took me a while to get a chance to see this film: anybody who was around Bristol last summer for Banksy's 'Homecoming' exhibition will be aware of the popularity of the city's most celebrated son, and therefore I shouldn't have been surprised that when the first three times I tried to see the film the cinema was sold out. However, I got there in the end.

In my admittedly naïve opinion, street art is one of the most significant art movement of the 21st century. Its attraction lies in the fact that it is one of the most democratic forms of visual art – there is a conscious rejection of the safety net of critical censorship or gallery authority. Instead, the public are engaged with artists' work throughout the course of their daily lives, and it is up to them to conclude which side of the line this kind of work treads – is it graffiti, a public menace and an eyesore, or is it a work of art that has a right to be displayed wherever the artist chooses? I'm rambling. However, I wanted to establish my feelings towards street art as a whole before engaging with Banksy's satirical and humorous representation of it within Exit Through the Gift Shop.

To the film…

Banksy's first foray into film-making drags his unique sweet and sour mix of humour and political satire kicking and screaming onto the silver screen. Anyone hoping for a revelation of his true identity is to be disappointed – the film opens with a blacked-out figure of a man in a hood, and whilst the Bristol accent defies the voice alteration, it's clear that this film is not designed to be a personal unmasking. Rather, Banksy's humour has a very different kind of revelation in mind.

The true hero (or perhaps anti-hero would be a better description) is the curiously care-free French shop-keeper/amateur filmmaker, whose interest in graffiti artists is borne out of a chance confrontation with the artist known as 'Space Invader'. The film follows Guetta's attempts to capture his encounters with various street artists, including the notorious Banksy, on camera, and in the process Banksy encourages Guetta to create a documentary out of the ridiculous amount of film that he has amassed over several years of his life.

Unfortunately, Guetta, although a handy cameraman, is quite clearly not a filmmaker. Part of Banksy's skill in creating this film is that it makes us ask just who is the director in this haphazard process. One of the frequently-quoted lines of the film comes from Banksy himself, saying "it's basically the story of how one man set out to film the un-filmable. And failed." The character of Guetta that we see on screen is simply ridiculous, and yet we are attracted by his attitude of naivety. He is a hugely entertaining personality, and even more so because he appears to take himself so seriously. Even Banksy cannot quite know what to make of him. Is he a disguised genius, or a fool who got lucky? Either way, Banksy's portrayal of the way in which Guetta engages with the art world breathes new life into that clichéd question of what actually gives art both aesthetic and financial value. With the help of Rhys Ifans' superbly wry narration, the film conducts us through the emergence of the street art counterculture, and how perceptions of it have changed within the political, artistic and social establishment.

There are so many things that could be said about this film, but it is dangerous to say more without ruining the sense of the unexpected that the film generates. That is a tribute to the intricacy of the documentary narrative, in which real life personalities generate the same thrill of the unknown as fictional plot lines. Suffice it to say, I left feeling lusciously confused – who was I in the end laughing at or with? In the face of Banksy's teasingly ironic vision, no one is left unscathed. Not even us. Not even Banksy himself.

James Gill Twitter @jg8608 More reviews at http://web.me.com/gilljames/Single_Admission

Exit Through the Gift Shop is credited as "a film by Banksy", who is a notorious and perhaps the most popular and widely acclaimed (and the premiere provocateur) in the group of street artists from the past several years. Yet his credit as director is something of a lark; he's never directed before, and he claims at the end of the film that this will be the last time he helps someone make a documentary on street artists. The bulk of the footage shot was by another artist (or some would say 'so-called'), Theirry Guetta, a former clothing store owner who used to take super-cheap and mis-made clothes and sell them for rocket-high prices as if they were designer wear, who started taping everything one day, just whatever was around him. Then, when his cousin, nicknamed 'Space Invader', took him around to show him how he put up his stenciled artwork around town, Thierry became enamored and followed anyone who would let him around town with his camera.

Soon, a documentary was looking like it was taking shape, but was it really? At one point, after years of filming and amassing such a large collection that it would make all OCD-ers cringe, he did try and make a documentary out of it called 'LIFE REMOTE CONTROL - THE MOVIE', which Banksy, upon watching it, didn't really know what to say, since he hated it and couldn't really put it in words. Thierry wasn't a filmmaker, and he wasn't an artist, but he went after doing both anyway, and it's him that Banksy makes the focus of, taking his masses of footage- most of it on street artists who remain anonymous (only a few, like Shepard Fairey who made the red and blue Obama poster so iconic, go unblurred on camera)- and telling this story of this... kind of nutty guy, and how somehow, by his determination and, indeed, some mental imbalance, he became "Mr. Brain-Wash", a self-created art phenomenon that is basically a huge collection of Andy Warhol rip-off screen prints of celebrities (how huge you might ask? Well, there's a reason I kept thinking of Howard Hughes during the film, and a Spruce Goose comparison isn't far off).

Banksy says at the start he didn't want Thierry doing a documentary on him since he didn't think he was very interesting, and turned the camera on his original documentarian instead. I wonder though how much of this is really true, or perhaps just part of Banksy's own mystique; the guy is like The Shadow of street artists, with a touch of Tyler Durden. He pops up, does his thing, and leaves, trying to get by with his "gray-legal-area" artwork in Britain and elsewhere, and making waves with his real provocative pieces (i.e. the art on the Palestine wall, and especially the stunt at Disneyland, which is one of the most fascinating parts of the film). He remains a shadow unto himself on screen, becoming like one of his stencils in a silhouette form and a voice muffled by distortion. But then again, he knows that he can only be so self-indulgent - how can he keep up, for example, with a guy like Thierry Guetta.

He is the real star of the film, and he really is one of a kind, a genuinely interesting "character" who sometimes, ala Howard Hughes, repeats things a bit too much, and like Michael Scott on the Office can seem to put himself in some awkward positions. He's also good in a crunch (such as the Disneyland incident), and his very first piece of art- his own self-portrait as a guy with shaggy hair and a hat and a camera- was put all over town by himself and it's a genuinely good piece. And his how he relates to others if interesting too; he takes some really long stretches of time from his family, and those he documents like Shepard Fairey don't know whether he's a genuinely good guy or just wacko, or both in a single bound. Certainly when he is finally let loose, by way of a gentle suggestion by Banksy, to create his own art it becomes like pushing a river-boat over a mountain: something huge that should be impossible, but there it is, and WTF?

The reaction to his art, and how people see it in the film (frankly I never heard of the guy, unlike Banksy, though I'm assuming he's a big deal in elite art circles), is mixed really. A guy who just pours out hundreds of pieces of art and paintings right away instead of taking years for the craft? What separates him from Banksy, and it's most likely what makes this such a great documentary, is the method of hype. That really is what is the hook here (I can imagine this being a fantastic double feature, by the way, with My Kid Could Paint That), that this guy ended up being such a sensation by pimping himself out there, getting on the cover of a magazine, without building up street cred (forgive the pun) that most of the artists shown here need to get. As Banksy notes, there are no real rules in art, though MBW probably did break them... which he can't really condemn nor condone exactly. He is what he is, and his big bushy sideburns lead up to passionate eyes and a sense of life and art that is... um, influenced?

This is the only documentary you need to see on street art, if there even are any others. Perhaps Banksy means for this to be *the* statement on it and leave it at that. It kept me contemplating long after it was over, and I'm sure to revisit it many times. That I have only a minimal interest in street art should go without saying; Guetta, Banksy, and everyone else make this a must-see.

Exit Through the Gift Shop may be all smoke and mirrors but it is a highly provocative mirror we look into, one that raises many questions about the commercialization of art and even about the authenticity of the documentary form itself. Ostensibly directed by the mysterious British graffiti artist Banksy, the film, shot with a not too steady hand-held camera, describes the attempts by Los Angeles clothing store owner Thierry Guetta to capture on film the world of street artists, previously hidden from public view. Banksy, who has developed quite an underground reputation for outrageousness after posting his own paintings in the Met and other museums, is shown hooded, in shadows, and with his voice distorted.

He begins the film by explaining that the movie was supposed to be about him but when Guetta's attempt at film-making proved to be unwatchable, he took over the making of the film and it became a documentary about Guetta, and how he was transformed into the street artist known as "Mr. Brainwash". Narrated by Welsh actor Rhys Ifans (slotted to play Edward de Vere in the upcoming Roland Emmerich film Anonymous), Guetta is an garrulous and outgoing Frenchman who carries his video camera with him wherever he goes, filling up tape after tape. After meeting with his cousin known as Space Invader, a graffiti artist famous for mosaics showing characters from the Space Invader video game, he is introduced to Shepard Fairey, the man responsible for the Obama "hope" campaign in 2008 as well as street artists Monsieur André, Swoon, Sweet Toof, Borf, and many others.

Shepard and Thierry become partners in the clandestine world of graffiti-making and, even though Shepard feels that that there is something not quite right about Guetta, he is happy to have him around as a "security guard" who is willing to climb tall buildings to locate the most lucrative spots. Eventually, Thierry realizes that, in order for his film to be successful, he must find a way to find the reclusive Banksy. He finds Banksy, however, almost impossible to track down. The power of intention works wonders though, for on a trip to Los Angeles, Banksy himself contacts Thierry to ask for his help in finding the best places to post in L.A. The end result is an ongoing relationship and a Banksy art show called "Barely Legal" that does extremely well financially. As far as its artistic merits, I will leave that to others to decode.

After Banksy tells Guetta to leave his tapes with him and go put on his own show, Thierry does just that, renting an old CBS Studio and transforming it into a factory where he endeavors mightily to put on his own show "Life is Beautiful" under the name "Mr. Brainwash". The 2008 show, aided by an L.A. Weekly cover story, earns Thierry over one million dollars and catapults the Frenchman into the ranks of the world's most popular street artists. Exit Through the Gift Shop may be the real deal or it may be a tongue-in-cheek spoof of the gullibility of the public and the crass commercialism of the art world but only Banksy really knows. It does, however, provide a fast-paced and highly entertaining glimpse into a world that has, heretofore, eluded the camera because of its secretive nature and dubious legality.

How is it until now I'd never seen this gem of a movie? The film is directed by notorious, and equally mysterious English street artist, Banksy. It uses many, many pieces of stock footage from a French shop keeper named Thierry Guetta (A man who would later be known as Mr. Brainwash), who follows many street artists all over the world, capturing their art on film before it is taken down. He soon comes across the man himself, capturing his art, and even attempts to make a documentary centered around the art, and the artists (Even though he has never made a film before). But Banksy decides to turn the tables, and instead focuses his own documentary on the life of Guetta. Why? As Banksy himself puts it, "He's a more interesting person than I am." An inspired decision on his part. Theirry Guetta really is a fascinating person, a man obsessed with taking a video camera everywhere he goes, and capturing these artists at work, having strong senses of passion for both. He is also a witty person, sometimes the things he says feel a little too odd to be true, but believe it. The film's portrait of the man is rather eccentric, and energetic.

A lot of this is to the credit of film editors Tom Fulford, and Chris King, whose editing and pacing is pitch perfect, always leaving proper delivery for some rather humorous things to occur, and never straying away from giving the world of art its own adequate time in the spotlight. The film really is a thought provoker, sometimes the life of the man can make you question "Is this for real?" I guess the whole film is really summed up by one phrase: "Time will tell whether I'm a rabbit, or a turtle." Sounds silly now, but once you hear it, the gears in your head start right up. It's a passionately crafted movie of a man with nothing but passion for what he does.

Exit Through the Gift Shop is a diamond in the rough, one that I give **** out of ****

Widely speculated to be an elaborate prank by the world's foremost "street" artists, Banksy, this ultimately engaging film examines the line between artistry, con artistry and commerce. The movie plays like a reality TV show with footage shot by Frenchman (although the silliness of his accent makes one wonder) Thierry Guetta interspersed with confessional interviews with the principals including Banksy, well-known since the Obama election Shepard Fairey and Guetta himself. Ultimately, Guetta dominates the story but it is the Banksy interviews which serve as the prime entertainment in the film. Banksy's Geico Gekko accent, Sahara-dry wit ("so I realized Thierry wasn't a documentary filmmaker but just a man with mental problems...and a camera") leave the impression of someone who could fake an entire documentary for fun and profit. However, Guetta may be the puppet master given that he cons Banksy, Fairey and "Space Invader", another Frenchman, into teaching him the trade, rips off their work and ultimately bamboozles the world's art-buying public into forking over several million dollars for crap he created on the fly (to which Banksy deadpans: "I use to encourage everyone I met to create art, I don't do that so much anymore"). Fans of "The Usual Suspects", "Basic Instinct" or just of ambiguity generally will appreciate the film and puzzling over what differentiates art from grift, con from sucker and selling out from keeping it real.

Like the very nature of the underground street art movement "Exit Through the Gift Shop" feels fresh and almost subversive. It doesn't matter to me if it is a conceptualized mockumentary, or a genuine attempt to record the outsider reality experienced by brilliant street artists like Shepard Fairey, Invader, and the infamous Banksy. "Exit Through The Gift Shop" is mischievous and immediate in the same way that street art is.

Mainly we watch the evolution of Thierry Guetta from an obsessive-compulsive videographer to a successful popular artist whose street credibility is quickly parlayed into the show of shows. Guetta takes contemporary icons and gives them Warholian emphasis, so we see a reinvention of Madonna, who once reinvented herself in a Marilyn-like way, and who we later learn commissions Mister Brainwash (Guetta) to design her cover art. Guetta's point-of-view is absolutely authentic in the way it synthesizes and skewers popular culture. Or is it Banksy's point-of-view? It doesn't matter. It's brilliant, provocative, charming, and completely entertaining.

Banksy directs a documentary about Thierry Guetta who immigrated from France in 1999. He opened a trendy vintage clothing shop in L.A. He is constantly filming with his video camera. He discovers his cousin is street artist Space Invader which turns into a more in-depth obsession with other street artists. Invader connects him with Shepard Fairey which leads to other artists. He gets intrigued with the secretive Banksy. He films Banksy and then Banksy turns the camera on him.

There is a fun energy about this. It feels guerrilla secretive outsider work. Then the question becomes whether this is real or fake or semi-real. It colors the movie for me. In the end, this is another form of street art. It doesn't have to follow any demands of a documentary. I took the whole movie with a grain of salt. It doesn't mean it's bad. I just wish this is a more definitive solid movie about Banksy.

An experience will ultimately become a diluted memory, unless the experience itself is documented in image or film, in which case it will last forever (or until it is deleted/destroyed...). 'Exit Through The Gift Shop' is a brilliant examination of the underground street art culture, and a poignant look at man's obsession with a culture he is increasingly drawn into throughout his life.

Thierry Guetta (pronounced Te-ree), is a French immigrant living Los Angeles with his loving wife and children and a good honest job, but there is one object he will never leave the house without; his video camera. Guetta has been enticed into the everyday cinema verité movement of simply recording any, and everything that goes on in his life. From playing with his children, to his ultimate attraction of following other street artists around and documenting their work, Guetta loves to watch, document and admire from behind the lens. Guetta eventually earns the trust and respect of various artists around the globe including the elusive Banksy, his cousin Space Invader and Shepard Fairey, and provides the audience with an up close and personal view of a culture (or industry) which has been projected into the limelight over the past five years.

Narrated by Rhys Ifans, 'Exit' has been acknowledged as not having a registered director, instead it is a smoothly edited combination of Guetta's extensive and various filmed sequences from over the years (the film shows his EXTENSIVE physical collection of tapes from more than decade of film-making) and interviews with various leading figures in the industry. For example Banksy is interviewed at length over his involvement with Guetta and comes across as a very down-to-earth, humble and at times, incredibly funny person. While everybody, including Guetta, are extremely brazen and don't hold back when speaking about each other, their profession or how the street art culture has developed over time into a somewhat monopolistic environment (which can be viewed by the fact that the rich and famous turned out in droves for Banksy's first exhibition in the United States).

This isn't a film about 'graffiti' though, as some may simply see it as on the surface, aside from the exploration of a fast growing community it is also a deep, scary and heart-warming look at Thierry Guetta's life over a decade onwards as he constantly leaves behind his family and his job to follow various artists around the globe. Mentally unstable, or one of the greatest French minds of the last twenty years, nobody is quite sure what Thierry Guetta (also known as Mr Brainwash) is, but what everybody does acknowledge is that he is a man with a passion and while he may not follow the same ideology as everybody else, his heart is still in the right place. 'Exit Through The Gift Shop' is a fascinating documentary focusing on a rising culture that many people may not have much knowledge about, except for knowing the name of the elusive, and as I have mentioned, surprisingly hilarious Banksy.

I don't know if there is any definitive proof out there to suggest that this in fact a "mockumentary" or a "prankumentary", or whatever else it has been coined by critics for that matter - but - hoax or not, I thought it was well worth the watch! I personally believe it is fake. Straight from the off I began to to question aspects of the story; the validity of the storyline, the authenticity of the characters, and in particular, who was doing the filming when it was the film-maker in shot!? Anyway, that aside, Banksy does make a pretty convincing movie, and after surfing the web for just a few minutes, my findings have proved that many (dupes?) still firmly believe the material is 100% authentic.

For me, this takes little away from my enjoyment in watching the film. Towards the end, I did feel a little cheated, as documentaries have traditionally been based on reality, and therefore a non fiction documentary does seem a little pointless. But like I said before, it is still worth watching.

Admiring the many pieces of street art, alone, make the film worth a watch for me. Don't expect to be blown away, because this after all is just a documentary, (and lets face it, no documentaries are that exciting!) but it certainly does enough to maintain my interest throughout.

I doubt this is ever going to exist as somebody's 'favourite movie ever', I think I can say that with conviction, however, it is one of those films that I recommend you watch - If only once.

Want to waste a couple of hours and then hate what you just saw? Welcome to hell. It's a particularly grating hell, because it sums up what everyone really hates about all pretentious artists, films, and films about artists.

This one in particular glorifies a talentless French wannabe artist, Mr. Brainwash, ("MBW" for short, aka, Thierry Guetta) whose one claim to fame is that there are two other artists faking glorified reviews of his so-called art, which is just ripping off of many other more talented artists.

He is undeniably the least talented of the bunch of artists portrayed here, a bunch of street artists who suddenly became famous when one of them, Shepard Fairey, did an iconic portrait of Obama during the run up to the election in 2008. Since he and Banksy both vouched for Mr. Brainwash, that was enough for the entire Los Angeles art scene to fall all over themselves gushing praise about his so-called art.

The first half of the film is pretty useless, and overly padded with the worst footage of Thierry's home movies, and the only word to describe them is Unwatchable. Then what follows is a long section of MBW, still named Thierry, following a lot of street artists as they do their illegal tagging, nearly getting caught, and even at one point being held by the police at Disneyland. Quelle Suprise!

The last part of the film is the worst statement about art and the garbage that passes for it in the Los Angeles scene. It sets up the city to be full of mindless sycophants, all of whom have no idea what they're looking at, and to add to their gullibility, pay enormous amounts for the privilege of owning a piece of the garbage. I cannot for the life of me understand what in the hell made this piece of crap film so worthwhile that it got an Oscar Nomination, but my guess is that Banksy's publicity machine may have had something to do with that.

I'd heard of the film but must admit to watching it with no expectation whatsoever, so there's no point in me saying I wasn't disappointed as I had no expectation BUT I was immediately enchanted and absolutely hypnotised by this fantastic tale that weaves fact with fiction.

Banksy blurred and blacked-out next to a monkey head with no eyes under glass...superb! A yuppie pop attack that given half a chance a yuppie would probably buy as art or media...AND then Banksy's effected voice...oh my giddy aunt...I almost poohed my pants with laughter...AND WHAT DOES HE DO? He proceeds to play slightly dumb and remote allowing those that he is having a poke at to continue BEING dumb and remote. You, Banksy mate (not that it matters to you) gained my respect straight away! HERE is a genuine film that IS 'STREET ART'.

But the real star of the piece --- as created by Banksy --- is Thierry Guetta...F**king Genius! A superb caricature for the modern age...not only is he a Warhol baby BUT he seems to be the actual mistake that Warhol made during a dodgy can of soup in HIS fifteen minutes of madness! If he's really like he is portrayed then he's a passionate groupie at best without any artistic ability whatsoever...unless art has become project management (...AND to be honest I'm not sure whether Banksy is really making THAT point BUT hey I'm one measly member of the stupid masses...) Hell, it doesn't matter as Guetta does a good deal of his talking whilst overlooked by a portrait of the Laughing Cavalier...whose heady hairstyles he seems to emulate...so consciously or subconsciously he is laughing at us whilst laughing at the character he creates...everything is so manufactured that it is almost stencilled in a way that STREET ART never was BUT in a way that the mass market bullsh*t IS! What can I say but this is a portrayal of a distorted art market and the plain meaninglessness of pop-art? Now that everyone can have their fifteen minutes of fame I guess the thing to de-construct is fame itself...and that's what Banksy does here...and has been doing since he marked his first wall...I could go on but it'd waste your time with my idiocy and isn't that what this film is about?! Take a leaf out of Banksy's Beckett-like debut (not only has he Waited for Godot HE stencilled him)--- Think for yourself and create your own reality!

Definite must watch for everyone in my opinion.

There are many who will swear this film is 100% truth. However, there are also those who believe it to be a complete farce- concocted by Shepard Fairy (the Obama poster guy) and everyone's favorite guerilla stenciler, Banksy. Regardless of the film's true history, it is a statement about street art and, more importantly, an examination of the true values which motivate it. The film opens in 1999 with Thierry Guetta, a clothing mogul and amateur filmmaker. Guetta is a bumbling, stumbling and nearly incoherent Frenchman who accidentally discovers his cousin's role in the rapidly growing street art community. This chance occurrence sends Guetta on a 10 year, global journey to document prominent members of the fledgling art movement- from its grimy, urban roots on street corners and the sides of buildings, to its rise into galleries, auction houses and the homes of wealthy collectors. The odd, quirky and moving art in the film plays as much of a role as Guetta, Banksy and the other artists. Guetta represents the unknowing public who is forced to view this street art created by individuals who are fueled by cynicism and disgust for the modern, commercial and censored world we live in. And, naturally, he wants to be a part of it. Without giving too much away, 'Exit through the Gift Shop' is first an intimate look into the world of street art and how mainstream consumerism is destroying it- the same way it did coffee houses, acoustic music, and, well, art in general. And then it is one man's odyssey into the street art world. He is overcome by one of the last great outlets of independent social criticism and some of the movement's greatest contributors. Then, he attempts to become one of them and really makes a mess. 'Exit through the Gift Shop' is a documentary in the way that 'Borat' was a documentary. It's farce which forces its viewers to look deeper into the subject. Rhys Ifan provides narration for the film, which only adds to the humor and overall dry wit. In a perfect synthesis, 'Exit' combines great art, a few nail biting and anxiety inducing moments and a clever and hilarious story which is both too far-fetched to be fully believable but also simply be written off as a complete hoax.

First of all we have to make clear that this film is not about Banksy (although it contains some very rare and interesting footage of him "working"). Better than that this film is MADE BY Banksy himself! So be prepared for something really fresh. Second of all, this film is not even about street artists in general. It's about a man that tried too hard to be one. So be prepared for something entertaining. Best of all, this particular "artist" is actually an idiot so be prepared for something funny as hell. This movie is following a guy who accidentally got himself into the world of street art, not as an artist (he can't even draw a single line), but as a watcher. During the finale you will find out how an outsider moron, without working at all, can be a well known artist pissing all over the street art. I don't know if this is a vendetta for Banksy or he was just wanted to restore street art's "honor" from guys like Mr BrainWash (my God...). All I know is that I'm thinking this movie over and over for the past three days and being an "artist"(I hate the term ...whatever) myself, I can't forget the moment, laughing about this Terry guy when I realized that I'm actually laughing about myself. If you like Art and if you like Movies, this one is both.

First of all, a misconception has been clarified, it's a documentary made by Banksy instead of a documentary about Banksy, the protagonist is a French guy lived in USA, named Thierry Guetta, who is a fanatical street art lover and amateur filmmaker, later he dubs himself as "Mr. Brainwash", when he engages himself into his own path as an artist, and eventually he succeeded in turning his debut solo exhibition as an unforeseen knockout.

Conspicuously I am not such a documentary enthusiast, the last-seen documentary I could recall is Werner Herzog's ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD (2007). And the single reason why I feel compulsive to watch this film is BANKSY, then, due to the opening statement, it is a nonevent for me. But the film has its very rational depiction of the current ill-directed contemporary art market where self-seeking and over-hyped works are dominating, which are strangling the creativity of aesthetics for a booming generation, with which is the noblest and the most quintessential liability endows every qualified artist.

Whether or not the entire sensation is a hoax, the film has cunningly skipped most of Mr. Brainwash's activity concerning doing art, there comes a staggering shock all of a sudden he has created so many paintings and other art works, while we have not been witnessed anything about how these astronomical farragoes being produced, which I consider a big loophole here, or maybe it is a planned maneuver, only it boomerangs.

Thierry's broken English is another nuisance for me, most of his interviews are badly written and don't contain any substantial meaning, even no wisecracks, and the film has wasted too much screen time on him rather than on his and other graffiti artists' works, and what's more vexing, he is not an even interesting character!

After all, I tend to believe it is another prank Banksy has brewed, to expose the shallowness and aimlessness of the sickeningly frivolous art world we are trapped in.

I don't know quite where to start, I sit here at Euston Station in awe of my evening at Lambeth Palace. I have never seen, and I never will see, a film quite like that, in a setting such as that, ever again!

I shall start with the setting. Imagine yourself in a dimly lit, slightly damp, disused tube tunnel. Sounds grim I know but hear me out. This tunnel is filled to bursting with beautifully lit original artwork in the form of paintings and installations. There is a bar, but no ordinary bar - drinks are served from a burnt out ice cream van. There are popcorn vendors selling to you from the furniture of a North American diner and countless red leather sofas scattered around, some of which gather round a huge canvas bonfire burning recognisable Renaissance classics. All these aspects are nothing new to Banksy fans however, although there is new art in a new location it has become expected of Banksy to display his work differently, the reason people were here was for once not to see paintings or installations but cinema.

Eventually, a little later than scheduled due to the lure of a beer round the fire, what everyone had been waiting for began - and what an extraordinary piece of cinema it was.

Without wanting to ruin it for anybody the story is about a French eccentric who's strange obsessions lead him to be involved with one of the most elusive groups of people in history...street artists. This inevitably leads him to Banksy and what happens to these two men when they meet is hilarious, disastrous, brilliant and astonishing all at once.

Filmed almost entirely on poor quality hand-held cameras this film illustrates perfectly that the key to a brilliant movie is a strong story with engaging characters, not how clever the 3D effects are or the amount of money spent on special effects. I refer of course to Avatar which I saw last night - the first five minutes of which are interesting because 3D is a clever formula but after that you are left desperate for plot line, half decent acting and a hero to engage with. Banksy's film is so brilliant for exactly the reasons Avatar isn't. Charming, funny and insightful, I thoroughly enjoyed everything about this evening and I totally recommend Exit Through The Gift Shop.

Greetings again from the darkness. Hoax or real? Documentary or Mockumentary? Fiction or Stranger than Fiction? Sorry, but I can't answer these questions. A quick Google gives the appearance that the characters and story are true - or at least real. I guess the main argument I would make is that, true or not, the film is entertaining and enlightening either way.

It certainly makes a statement regarding the commercialization of art. This includes fads and the power of hype and marketing. I can't really offer up much commentary on the content of the film other than to say Thierry Gueta is a fascinating character, though I have absolutely no interest in owning his "art". I did love Banksky's line about Thierry being more interesting than his work. Couldn't agree more.

Whatever else I think about these self-reflexive mockumentary pranks like Casey Affleck's I'm Still Here and now, inappropriately nominated for an Academy Award for best Documentary Film, Banksy's Exit Through the Gift Shop, I have to admit they reflect their times in ways that real documentaries can't.

How can I not admire filmmakers who create the reality they're documenting? Banksy's film goes steps farther by manufacturing the target demographic, as well. Pretty slick.

Upon hearing initially about the "political" street artist's film, I tweeted something along these lines: If street artist Banksy really walked the walk he'd release his film for free under a Creative Commons license like Sita Sings the Blues.

I said that because I hadn't seen it. Now that I've seen it and get the joke, I'm glad to confront its politics: Few films could be farther from the generosity and artistry of Nina Paley's film.

I've never trusted the sincerity of Banksy's anonymous persona or the literal sincerity of his "politics." I thought his painting of the Gaza wall was glib self-promotion, at best. Now, after having watched this film, I have my doubts that a real, single person called "Banksy" even exists.

Regardless, even if he did, I wouldn't believe a word he said.

Exit Through the Gift Shop will probably win its Award, though, if my judgment of the American cultural milieu holds true.

As an antidote, watch Ceský sen. It's just as mischievous and honestly political. I can't think of another film in which young artists wrestle with their generation's need for irony. You won't find that sort of self-awareness in Banksy's film.

P.S. I've always found smug the art of Shepard Fairey so he certainly belongs in this film.

Much better reviews than I could hope to write have been written, so I will keep my remarks short. I have no background knowledge in street art, beyond having heard of Banksy, to really judge this film on the breadth or depth of its coverage.

What I found interesting about this film is not so much the film itself (although it is quite good), but the controversy surrounding it, which is an extension of the actual film to a point. Some have said that Banksy, who is the film's director and also a big part of the film, has created Mr. Brainwash and that the entire film is a scam.

I think just the opposite. I think the film is completely real, but Banksy is pushing the idea that it is just a scam to create buzz for it. Which, I think, has worked. By taking a good film and then turning it into a piece of art with multiple dimensions: is there a scam or not, and if so, what is it? That is genius.

I also appreciate the inclusion of Shepard Fairey, who I did not know before this film. I had seen his "obey" stuff and the Andre the Giant stuff, and of course the Obama poster. But i did not know who made it or that these were all the same guy. That was a nice revelation for me, and it was great to put a face to the work -- here is a street artist at work since 1989 that has risen to something more. Banksy may be a millionaire street artist, but a street artist just the same. Fairey is commercial, whether that is good or not.