Review: Exit through the Gift Shop
Exit through the Gift Shop is a sort of meta-documentary, directed by the well-known British street artist Banksy. The subject of the film, Thierry Guetta, was at one point a would-be documentarian of the street art movement, who later rebranded as a street artist himself under the name Mr. Brainwash.
About two-thirds of the film’s footage was taken by Guetta himself, who was a prolific videographer to the point of obsession, described as carrying a camera absolutely everywhere and having thousands of hours of taped footage stowed in boxes at his home. Guetta, a cousin to French street artist Space Invader, began following his cousin ‘at work’ and slowly found connections to and friendships with many prominent members of the street art scene. Guetta’s habit of filming everything around him gave rise to a vague plan to one day compile the footage into a documentary on street art as a movement.
Some months after Banksy’s LA art exhibition Barely Legal placed street art into the mainstream spotlight and made such pieces a sought-after commodity, Guetta finally attempted to compile his accumulated footage into a film, which resulted in a bizarre mashup piece titled Life Remote Control which Banksy would describe as “unwatchable”. Banksy took possession of the original tapes at this time, while Guetta returned to the US to pursue his own career as a street artist, which the remaining third of the documentary portrays.
The subject matter and unique stockpile of footage makes Exit through the Gift Shop a very dynamic film, with plenty of footage of street artists at work in bizarre environments and encountering trouble from police, including one anecdote of Guetta’s detainment by Disneyland security following his filming of Banksy’s Guantanamo Bay protest piece there.
However, the latter part of the film, covering the start of Guetta’s career as Mr Brainwash and his first art exhibition, could be accused of bias. It portrays Guetta as a bullheaded imitator who effectively gained prominence by riding a wave of media and critical frenzy over street art, despite having little actual talent beyond using mass-production techniques to create prolific numbers of pieces. This portrayal is backed well, however, by the variety of subjects interviewed, including the promoters and workers at Mr. Brainwash’s first solo art show, interviewed prior to and on the day of the showing. Guetta himself has more interview time than anyone else in the film, so it could hardly be said he was not given a chance to speak in his own defense.
Overall, the documentary is very well put together and is both entertaining and attention-grabbing.
