Exit Through the Gift Shop

J.P:

Like Sasquatch, the Lock Ness Monster, and the 1969 NASA moon landing, Banksy's Exit Through the Gift Shop has people wondering if this movie is for real or not. However, when it comes right down to it, does that even matter?

This documentary follows Thierry Guetta, a quirky Frenchman with an obsession for filming. Guetta befriends an array of grafitti artists including Space Invader, Borf, Shepard Fairey (the man who came up with Obama's 2008 election poster), and, of course, Banksy. Guetta eventually sticks with Bansky while the two of them embark on a wonderous grafitti expedition. After a while, Banksy convinces Guetta to turn the camera over to him while Guetta tries his hand at art, with an unbelievable turnout.

Whether this film is legit or not, everything about it, for the most part, feels authentic and that is an astonishing feet for any "prankumentary", if indeed that's what this is. The real decade-old footage mixed in with the seemingly spontaneous humor of the ensemble makes this movie feel like the real deal, which I guess you could pin on the grade A acting, if indeed it is exactly that.

Like I hinted at earlier, this movie is funny, really funny. The dimwit humor of Guetta, cupped with countless attacks on Guetta's dimwit ways, makes this movie very enjoyable. If nothing else, this movie provides the audience with something (rather someone) to laugh at. But what is great about this movie is that it keeps the audience laughing while also keeping the audience engaged; we are constantly deciding for ourselves what art is and where we draw the line between vandlism and self-expression.

In the end it does not even matter if this film is a true story or not; it's funny, it's engaging, and it is just plain old fun. Besides, we get plently of enjoyment out of fiction anyways, don't we?

4.5 cans of spray paint outta five

Travis:

My favorite movie of this year, Exit Through the Gift Shop begins with street artist "Bansky" claiming that the film is "not Gone with the Wind, or anything." This is true. Those movies have nothing in common. However, it's a sweet film that utilizes the format of a documentary in order to lull the audience into a false sense of security. Because the world is used to documentaries being, or at least claiming to be, completely true, the audience begins to take whatever Bansky says as fact. But is it?

5 tubs of tapes outta 5.