Step 1
Ask your friend if they know who Banksy is.
Step 2
Act completely disturbed when they tell you that they have no idea who Banksy is.
Step 3
Show your stupid friend these images.
Step 4
After your friend smacks their forehead and says "Oh yeah, I know Banksy. Is the movie about him?" you respond with "Well... sort of."
In its baby form, this documentary was supposed to be about graffiti art and artists, including Banksy, but Banksy flipped the camera around without actually touching it.
The movie became about the director, Thierry Guetta, and how he morphs from a man filming street art to a man making street art, and eventually into a man-made street art explosion.
Thierry films every moment of his life and when he finds out that one of his family members does graffiti, he tags along with his camera in tow. From there it is a downhill tumble that, in the end, shows us that Thierry is passionately insane.
The movie is a mishmash of Thierry's home movies, shot from various handheld cameras. He follows some of the worlds greatest artists around, and when I say "follows," I mean he is there on rooftops and climbing on ledges right behind them. He is like the trained bird no ninja assassin should be with out.
The movie climaxes when Thierry fills an entire warehouse with his own art that bears a striking resemblance to all the pop art I have ever seen. By the end of the film, all the people who got him into the world of street art start talking like they are Dr. Frankenstein and he is the monster: "Sure, it was all fun and games 'til he started mangling villagers."
Some people get a little too big for their britches, and Thierry tears his to shreds like the goddamn Hulk, but his art is good. Before the TNT blast that is his first show, Thierry has already started selling paintings for ridiculous sums of money, paintings of John Lennon with a hole through his head and a Connect-the-Dots portrait of Andy Warhol.
This movie does something that few movies do, it entertained and it made me think. It was only as I was leaving, wondering why it was called Exit Through The Gift Shop that I realized the whole thing was about the commercialization of the art world, how some people shell out millions of dollars to get a canvas version of a painting that is sold in postcard form at the airport.
It's also about the impermanence of street art.
It's also about how Banksy is kind of a clever prick.
It's also about how there is beauty everywhere.
It's kind of a cruel joke but no one knows who it's on.
5 stars and a confused but intrigued expression.
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