Review of Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010) by Jamie B — 03 Nov 2014

An affable nutcase called Thierry Guetta who loves filming things stumbles upon an underground art movement. He tags along in its wake, videotaping one artist after another, but the most famous of them all eludes him - the legendary British street artist Banksy. The two are finally brought together one day, and Banksy eventually persuades Guetta to make a documentary on underground art using the thousands of hours of footage that he has collected. The resulting 90-minute film is so stunningly bad that Banksy tells Guetta to "go make some art" while he takes up the documentary project himself.

'Exit Through the Gift Shop' is the result, and I am tempted to say it is a work of genius. It starts as Banksy's film about Guetta's film about Banksy, but over time it morphs into a slightly resentful character sketch of Guetta. Why? Because when Banksy tells Guetta to "go make some art", the latter piggybacks off Banky's unwitting endorsement to start his own artistic career as 'Mr. Brainwash' and becomes a roaring success despite a complete lack of talent. He even sets up a kind of assembly line of creative people to make art for him, focusing only selling the work. In other words, he becomes a comically unaware capitalist - symbolizing everything that his "work" parodies.

This is a confusing shift in tone that makes the film seem a little disjointed towards the end, but there comes a Eureka moment that encapsulates the spirit of the film. Mr. Brainwash has crossed $1 million in sales, and a bemused spokesman of Banksy is commenting on the dizzy irony of the whole situation. "I think the joke is on..." He pauses, puzzled. "I don't know who the joke is on, really. I don't even know if there is a joke.".

The kicker? There is speculation that the whole film is an elaborate hoax, with Mr. Brainwash being Banksy's greatest work of art - or even Banksy himself.