Movie Review: Exit Through the Gift Shop

While I hadn't been actively avoiding "Exit Through the Gift Shop", it struck me as something that I wouldn't really enjoy. While I have heard of Banksy, the British street artist, before, and have enjoyed the few paintings of his that I've seen, I pegged this movie as a self-glorifying ode to street art. From the opening of the film, however, it's clear that this documentary is not going to go down that route.

The star of this film is not Banksy, it's actually the cameraman who films him, a French man by the name of Thierry Guetta. Thierry is an odd man who obsessively films everything in his life, and he stumbles upon the world of street art almost coincidentally. The film follows his exploits filming famed street artists (including Banksy) and his unlikely path into street art himself. The direction of the film changes significantly a few times, and it does take some getting used to, but in the end, it makes perfect sense, or no sense at all.

Speculations have arisen that the whole film is in fact a hoax, created by Banksy, with many questioning the authenticity of Thierry's portrayal. Whether or not it's a "hoax", this film is definitely the best documentary I've seen this year (not that I've seen many). It's surprisingly funny, and it raises a lot of questions about what it means to truly be an artist, what it means to "sell out", and whether or not some people should attempt to create art at all. You'll be thinking about this one long after it's over.