Exit Through the Gift Shop
photo from http://www.banksy.co.uk/
If you’ve never heard of Banksy before, stop, go google him, here I’ll make it easy just click here.
Now that you’re back, you should know Banksy directed a movie, called “Exit Through the Gift Shop“.
Click on to read my review.
I’ve been fascinated by Banksy for quite some time. The whole idea of street art is intriguing, not only for it’s artistic style, but also for what it says as a bit of rebellion towards culture. Both in how it is the best insight into the depths of culture, while at the same time still being completely counter cultural in it’s rules, or the disregards for the rules. In the simplest of terms, yes it is vandalism. Yet in my eyes, most of it is not just boiled down to defacing property. They are statements, they are expressions that in many cases, and especially Banksy’s make you stop and think. Banksy especially is capable of making powerful statements about what we perceive to be of the status quo and comes from a very informed perspective. Yet he challenges everything around him. Which in a sense is the essence of his art.
photo from http://www.banksy.co.uk/
Street art is in a sense purposed to be guerrilla, and temporary, yet in the wake of street being noticed by the media, has garnered a following that is almost in contrast to the notion behind it. In recent years, people have started collecting street artist’s work and some have fetched pricey tags by people in the art world. It is a double edge sword as the work gets recognition and credibility, by the act itself it no longer becomes subversive and part of the underground as it is shoved into the mainstream. Which is the crux of any great artist moving from unrecognized and disenfranchised, to being recognized for brilliant work.
Enough about street art as a whole, though I do feel the above paragraphs were necessary to help you understood where I was coming from as I move on to talk about this film as a whole.
All in all this movie is about Banksy, while not really being about him. It’s about how Banksy ultimately became such a strong influence that in a way he is responsible for something that he’d rather not be.
Let me unpack that statement.
The beginning of the movie chronicles Thierry (pronounced Terry), who by randomhappenstance ended up documenting the underground street art scene with his video camera. Once Thierry got deeper into the scene, he had somehow documented nearly every major player in the street art scene and the only one to elude his camera lens was the elusive and shadowwalking Banksy. Thierry was soon on a quest to seek out and film Banksy. It was the final piece Thierry needed to complete his documentary on the subject of street art. By yet another randomhappenstance Thierry and Banksy formed a bond and Thierry was allowed to film the man no camera could catch. In this sense the movie is about Banksy and how he has been such a patriarch to the street art scene.
Yet the movie takes a sharp left turn, wherein we learn by a sequence of events that Thierry has decided to pursue street art himself. This is where the movie clearly becomes about Thierry entirely. When you look back on the movie from the start it is entirely about Thierry and his eventual fingerprint on the street art scene, but until this point we only have thought of Thierry as a vehicle to an insight into the street art world.
I’m going to stop here. Only because I really want you to see this film.
Overall the film is far funnier than I could have expected. There is an inherent comedy in the way the entire story is told. Not only do the situations themselves bring laughs, but so do the people who are in this film. Not merely due to trying to be funny but just because of the people they are. If anything, I feel that this movie is unabashed, it never felt like people were putting on a show. They were just who they were, some more over the top and cookey, and some just very real and transparent.
Though we never see Banksy through the whole film, we do hear his own words, through a voice disguise, he brings a grounding to the entire piece, because it is in his own words that we are able to be guided through the events of the film. It is his experiences and perspectives that drive the whole narrative and this is the essential keystone to the movie. It is what ultimately makes the entire story intriguing, the man of mystery is allowing, albeit a small glimpse inside his head, a window that otherwise is welded shut and boarded up, inaccessible to all but a very small and trusted group of friends.
I cannot say better things about this movie. It is art as a whole, and is about a form of art that is not always recognized as the art that it is.
My only regret is that I missed out on a lot. Much of the movie centers around Los Angeles in the last 5 years, and while I was living here at the time, I missed going to some of the key events and after seeing footage of these events brought about a deep sense of regret that I was here and missed out on what may have been a once in a lifetime experience.
If anything do not miss out on the opportunity to see this film. It is in somewhat limited release and is going to be released on a staggered schedule all over the country over the next few months. And if you do not live in one of the cities, add it to your Nextflix queue now so that you don’t forget about it by the time it comes to DVD.
There is so much creativity in the world and I am constantly inspired by people’s ability to take risks and make statements. The limits of the mind have merely been scratched. The art of changing the way the world perceives itself is one that has stood the test of time. It is through art that we learn about ourselves and the world around us. Art is but a glimpse of perspective, but often of a perspective that is not our own, and when we stop and learn from others that is when we truly learn who we are.
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Great review Andrew! Amazing how this film has captured so much buzz. Banksy has created a pretty cool persona… the celebrity that no one can identify.