It's one of the great pleasures of film watching when you start out looking
at one kind of movie and realize it is turning into another sort of picture
entirely. "Exit Through the Gift Shop," the purported documentary created by
mysterious ... morestreet artist Banksy, does just that: While allegedly starting out as
a film about a man making a film about Banksy (which already gives it an
off-kilter, meta aspect), it turns around and ends up focusing on a man, Thierry
Guetta, who ends up becoming a "street artist" on his own and renaming himself
Mr. Brainwash. Guetta rides a wave of famous associations, knee-jerk hype and
the unquenchable hipster yearning for the next latest thing to success, despite
having no discernible talent as an artist whatsoever. But does Thierry Guetta
really exist? Who cares? Speculation that the movie itself and Mr. Brainwash's
story are just part of one colossal prank pulled on us by Banksy is part of the
fun. The more laughable Guetta's ambitions become, the more "Exit Through the
Gift Shop" forces us to think about the society we live in now, where you don't
even need a sex tape anymore to get your ticket of admission to the celebrity
carousel. Banksy targets the shallowness that he believes has permeated the art
world in his little cinematic house of mirrors, but it's way beyond that now.
"Exit Through the Gift Shop" is the funniest movie about the death of culture
you'll ever see. -- Don Kaye
