Cinema Review: "Exit Through The Gift Shop," a Banksy film.

by Marcel Reyes

Image used is the Mister Brainwash Madonna piece that was used as cover art for her Celebration greatest hits collection.

Though ostensibly to be about the work of Banksy and street art at large, "Exit Through The Gift Shop" is a film about fanatic emulation, obsession, and deconstruction. Very funny, and at times offensive to artists and art scholars, it makes a sharp incision into the contextualization of contemporary art. The film is mainly about the life and work of Thierry (pronounced Terry) Guetta, a floater of sorts whose deep emptiness due to tragic loss and general alienation causes him to latch on to whatever has the strongest flavor nearby. In this case, Thierry is immersed in the world of street artists, who take to his gung-ho enthusiasm and his knack for recording everything on camcorder (evolving into a fabrication in which Thierry is gathering material for a first-of-its-kind documentary about street art).

From under the wing of one street artist (Space Invader)