Exit Through the Gift Shop is a bewildering film. It’s not that the film’s content is hard to handle, but it mutates into something that leaves the mind wandering long after the lights turn up and the credits roll. The film follows Thierry Guetta, a native French man who’s living the American dream. With a family in tow, Guetta owns a clothing shop that seems to only half heartedly fulfill his desires. Guetta is a quirky man who, after the death of his mother, videotapes nearly everything he does in fear that he will miss the moments that make up his life. Guetta’s life changes though when he goes back to France for a family visit. While in France Guetta connects with his cousin Invader, a renowned street artist. Interested in Invader’s life and art, Guetta follows his cousin around with a camera in an attempt to capture a budding art form.
After running through the streets of France, Guetta is invigorated as he falls in love with Invader’s guerrilla art. Part of his love is entrenched in the creativity that flows through street art, but Guetta also enjoys the rush that comes along with defacing a city in spite of the law. Hoping to capture more of these nightly attacks, Guetta reaches out to other street artists to document his newfound love. Hours after hours of footage is collected by Guetta as he assembles dailies of nocturnal artists at work. Yet, throughout his documentation of these mavens, Guetta keeps on hearing one name that’s alluding him: Banksy, a world renowned street artist whose identity is always under wraps. Seeing Banksy as the holy grail, Guetta goes to great lengths to find this mysterious artist. Thanks to Serendipity, Guetta finds his missing link. Once in the presence of Guetta, Banksy sees an opportunity for his artwork to be archived. Their mutual friendship goes on for many months as Guetta continues to document Banksy’s work. Much of this documentation is revealed in the film’s first half, which itself acts as a true documentary. It’s this part of the film that sheds light on a relatively unknown form of modern art. Not only do we get to see the artists behind them, but we get a whiff of their purpose. Furthermore, seeing vagrant artists like Banksy at work is awe inspiring as they seemingly risk bodily harm in an attempt to put their art on buildings.
After collecting what seems like a years worth of footage, Banksy asks Guetta to finally cut his documentary. Needless to say, Banksy doesn’t get what he was hoping for. What Guetta gives Banksy is a haphazard, sensory overload film that doesn’t expose street art anymore than it hinders it. Disappointed in Guetta and knowing that there could be some decent footage in Guetta’s piles of film, Banksy sets off to craft his own documentary to give his trade proper exposure. To keep Guetta busy and out of his way, Banksy tells Guetta to sharpen his own street art skills. Thrilled by the possibility, Guetta crafts his persona to match the raw power street art possesses. Under the moniker “Mr. Brainwash”, Guetta runs around the streets of LA demonstrating the artistic talent that has been buried deep within his soul. Actually, such a talent doesn’t exist considering Guetta seemingly infringes on other artists designs and styles. It’s at this point that Exit Through takes a wicked turn, one of which is quite jarring considering the film’s grounded first half. The second half leads us down a comical rabbit hole where, by mostly dumb luck and faux endorsements, Guetta asserts himself in the street art world. He becomes so invested with the craft that he sets out to have his own art show. What happens to Guetta’s career and his first major show is an endeavor into the preposterous.
Such an erratic turn initially had me question the film’s validity. Better yet, it made me question the purpose of Banksy and Guetta’s art. This segue from documentary to a farce nearly drives Exit Through off the rails. As alluded to earlier, the film almost feels like it’s two separate pieces spliced together. Feeling betrayed at first, my mind began reeling as the film’s possibilities started to unravel. If what happens within the frame is indeed real, Banksy and Guetta have crafted a film that adequately captures the ambiguous nature of modern art. Subjectivity is the driving force between defining art and setting its value, and Banksy capitalizes on that in a humorous way that depicts both the artist and buyer as purveyors with no real base knowledge. If the film is in fact a work of fiction, then Banksy has assembled a film that ultimately pranks us for taking things at face value. To truly know the truth behind this film is contingent on Banksy or Guetta themselves coming forward. Considering Banksy has kept a low profile for much of his artful existence, I can’t imagine us knowing the difference between fact and fiction without his consent. Nonetheless, Exit Through the Gift Shop is an insightful experience that isn’t afraid to bamboozle its audience while informing them of an art form that‘s occurring right under their nose.
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