Review: "Exit Through the Gift Shop"

"Exit Through the Gift Shop" has been on my radar for a little while now and I watched it the other day. It's now up for an academy award for Documentary Feature, so that's fun.

The documentary is about street art, which is kinda fun. In a nutshell: this random French guy randomly stumbles upon his cousin one day who is preparing his street art, and then decides to follow his cousin around at night and such as he places his pieces up around the city. As time goes on, he hooks up with some of the most well-known street artists around to film them as they put up their work at night. Except for one: Banksy. If you don't know who Banksy is, he is possibly THE most well-known street artist around. He lives in Britain and is known for his particular style that is fairly distinct and usually in your face. If you don't know what street art is, it is basically artistic graffiti. Sometime is isn't spray paint, though, but it is all art that is strategically placed, usually in a city setting. The fun part about it is that it is usually temporary, as most times it's illegal. So obviously this random Frenchman filming this is a great thing, as it captures the technique and documents that it happens because sometimes the art is only up for a day or two. The movie goes like this for a while and it is quite interesting, not to mention that it's kind of fun and intriguing to delve into the underworld of street art.

Finally one day Thierry (the guy filming all this stuff) gets a call that Banksy is in town. He speeds off to meet him, literally, and ends up gaining his trust and starts to tape him as he works. This was really cool to me because Banksy is this mysterious guy who is never revealed in the film. We have faces for all the other street artists in this film except him; he is lighted from the back, in a hoodie (which looked very Assassin's Creed-ish) and his voice is processed. But he's a very intriguing person, and his ideas intrigue me. Something I've noticed about myself when it comes to art and design: I typically love things that I would never, EVER, in a million years come up with. I do not think like a Banksy. I can criticize something, sure. But to take that idea and turn it into a satirical work of art? Never.

So watching Banksy and listening to him was quite fun. Honestly, the movie could have ended right after his prank at Disneyland. But it didn't, and then it just went downhill.

Banksy challenges Thierry to go and create his own art. Thierry, thinking Banksy is this all-powerful god, takes this to heart and does just that. So he becomes a 'street artist' and calls himself "Mr. Brainwash." This was about where my internet cut out for the third time and I decided to postpone finishing the movie. I had a feeling that the movie was just taking a turn for the worse, though. And I was right.



So now the scope of the movie has changed. We are no longer following the underworld of street art but the new street art of Thierry. Except... he's not really doing art.

Thierry's ideas are bland and shallow to put it nicely; they have no depth, which is obvious in his explanations of his pieces. Even his name is cheesy, I mean come on, "Mr. Brainwash"? He claims to have no art training whatsoever, and it's kind of obvious. All of a sudden he makes hundreds of pieces of art for his opening show, a show that would typically be the size of someone who is well-established, not brand new. I found this further proof that the guy had no clue what he was doing. Even MORE is that everything he does is a rip off of Andy Warhol. He does the Cambell's soup in 50 different ways, he does Marilyn in 100 different ways, yet they're all still the same. It's very much a one trick pony. And also just like Andy Warhol: he's not making any of his art, he hires people to do that. And the thing is: people eat this shit up! They buy it for thousands of dollars (something else he obviously has no clue about—he just makes up astronomical prices as he goes, proving his ego is as big as ever.)

This documentary gets you thinking. My first thought was that this was further proof that I just don't 'get' post-modern art, or whatever art movement we're in now. But the more I thought about it the more I think the joke is on Thierry. Banksy has some HILARIOUS quotes at the end about Thierry's success and being mostly responsible for it. I won't tell you them because they're good ones, but basically he doesn't think the guy's art is worth crap.

And I feel it should be noted, Banksy is the one who made this film. The decisions to put 'what' in the movie were Banksy's. Therefore, I feel that the joke is on Thierry because he thought Banksy was this god-like person, when in reality Banksy is laughing at Thierry and his 'fame' knowing that the guy has no direction, has no vision, and has no concept as an artist. Banksy's art draws your attention to something, to point out why this is weird or why this is ridiculous. In no way do I feel that Banksy tried to glorify himself in a "my stuff is way better than his" way, but rather this movie is just another piece of Banksy's art: he draws attention to the fact that Thierry has no talent and is mostly trying to make a quick buck. "Exit Through the Gift Shop": you paid for your admission, now buy more of our crap.