‘Exit Through the Gift Shop‘ is an entertaining documentary. It is similar to ‘Adaptation.’, except instead of being a movie about a writer making a movie, it’s a movie about an “artist” making a movie. Originally Thierry Guetta was planning to make a documentary about street artists (graffiti), one of which was the elusive Banksy, who has surged into popularity in the last few years. These days, there is even a collection of his works in the book titled ‘Wall and Piece.’ There is no doubt Banksy is a talent, but Thierry Guetta… I would not wish anyone to have to sit through the documentary he put together.
Seeing this terrible compilation of footage Thierry has put together, Banksy took it upon himself to make a film about Thierry. Thierry goes from a casual shooter of graffiti to an artist named Mr. Brainwash. ‘Exit Through the Gift Shop’ takes small jabs at Thierry, with explanations from artists about how it takes years to develop a style and craft and finesse (which is true), and it also shows how, while Thierry has a lot of ideas, he doesn’t actually make any of the art himself. He recycles the same concept over and over and contracts workers by the day to make what he imagines.
The film works as two halves for two different reasons: The first half works because Thierry Guetta is an interesting character who will go through a lot just to get some footage, and the second half works because it brings up the question of what counts as “art.”
The validity of this film has been brought into question, with some people thinking it is a very elaborate hoax by Banksy himself. While unlikely to be true, that would only make this film much more interesting, because there are clearly aspects which are not fake. And these things make the movie all that more interesting to think about.
I think the whole thing is a hoax, but no matter, it’s very entertaining. Someone called it a “prank-u-mentary”.
Good Luck