Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010)

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Good movie but grossly overrated

Brilliant and touching

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Over the past decade, anonymous artist Banksy has become famous for his darkly humorous street art. Some of it functions as political satire, some of it is just for fun. In the meantime, he made this quirky documentary about another street artist. Thierry Guetta is a French-born owner of a clothing store who eventually turned to street art and adopting the moniker Mr. Brainwash. His exhibit, titled Life Is Beautiful, generated a lot of hype and turned out to be quite impressive.No doubt "Exit Through the Gift Shop" will raise the question of what we consider art. The snobs will probably disdain Banksy's and Mr. Brainwash's works as either trash or vandalism. Just a matter of opinion. After all, there can't really be a set-in-stone definition of what constitutes art.In the end, I recommend the documentary. It's a fun look at street art, and the methods that people use to create it. My favorite scene was their gag in Disneyland (which also turns out to be the documentary's most intense scene). Also interviewed is Shepard Fairey, who created the OBEY image featuring Andre the Giant's likeness, and then the HOPE poster for Barack Obama.The documentary received an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature but lost to "Inside Job" (about what led to the financial crisis of 2008).

The first half of the movie was good, except for the infinite unnecessary appearances and interviews of the camera d-bag -Mr. Brainwash- instead of the real artists... When I said good I meant it could've been a very engaging documentary, the topic is interesting, they got rare footage, exclusive interviews with the artists.... the second half makes me see, he wasn't an annoying french with good intentions, he was just an artist/rock star/d-bag wanna be... not much to say actually, should you watch this documentary? yes, it's a pop culture thing if you like to stay in touch with the world! should you watch every minute(even the boring bragging of the french spoiled kid) Nah, just ignore him, skip the boring parts and you will have a not so bad time.Mr. Brainwash: "Common guys lets the show go on, f**k... okay, okay, there is one thing, one thing... starting now dis second I'm running the show!you not giving order to anybody right now, I'm running the show! you listen to mi, anybody is listening to mi now!"

By far my most favorite documentary. I probably saw it 10 times already and every of my friends who haven't, I force to watch it with me.This movie gives a perfect view behind the artist and art scene, not only regarding street art but in general. It shows what it needs to be a successful artist today and how art gets commercialized through media and crazy people who only want to be 'in' and therefore try to follow the crowds as much in front as possible.It also shows how much real artists suffer under the hype they unchain themselves because people need heroes and so put the artist on top of their art, while the real artist wants his art to be recognized but not himself.Who wants to get a picture of the different personalities artists can have, this is an excellent example as well. While some want to stay in the shadow, others are narcissists and feel well in the spot lights. But at the end the audience may understand that the guys in the spot lights are the great pretenders (as was Andy Warhol for example), while the real artists prefer to stay unknown (as Banksy).However - since I saw this movie the first time, I changed the way to walk through a city, opening my eyes and finding many interesting things I would have simply overlooked before. So I can say - this movie brought some new value into my life - Thank you guys!!

I thought this was good. Without doubt would a gawk. By giving a summary I would be spoiling the mocumentary or documentary or commentary, in all it is simply a Banksy art piece and one of his very good ones. Its ironic that this anonymous street graffiti artist is now one of the most famous and probably the richest working artist and deservedly so. In his short time some of his pieces have become iconic and he always gets in the news.The world is a slightly better place with bananas as guns, kissing bobbies, provocative pictures on the Israeli peace wall and a meat van full of screaming stuffed animals.See this you will laugh.