Enter [sic] Through the Gift Shop

xWhile the title reads Exit Through the Gift Shop: A Banksy Film, it's really a little bit by and about Banksy. Actually it's a re-cutting, commissioned by Banksy, of hundreds of hours of handy-cam footage by one Thierry Guetta, a vintage clothier and obsessive amateur videographer who begins tagging along with notable veterans of the can and stencil after visiting family in Paris and becoming enthralled with a cousin who was gluing self-made Space Invader mosaics around Paris. It wasn't long before Guetta found himself tracing a triangle between Los Angeles, Paris, and London, where ultimately Banksy confides in him while he shoots some unique and never before seen facets of the elusive artist's process. Not that his processes are that mysterious, really. Yet some light is shed on his motivations such as when he brings Guetta up a narrow ladder and through a slim door to show him boxes of Series E British Notes he created with Princess Diana's bust in place of the Queen's. That's was a great little scene. But don't be alarmed, this isn't a glum human interest doc.

So while the first half is Guetta getting to know the creator of the "Obey Giant" campaign, (of which my city is plastered), leading into a string of scenes where they plaster and bomb from bridge decks and sight-lines of all degrees set to some tasty music - included is Portishead alumn Geoff Barrow - latter half is almost all Guetta/Banksy and Guetta's metamorphosis into an unsightly amalgamation of Shepard Fairey, Blek Le Rat, Banksy himself, Andy Warhol, and a little Jackson Pollock thrown in for good measure. In any case, Guetta, now "working" under the moniker MBW - Mr. Brainwash - co-opts yet again as he throws insane money into exhibit space for a show to feature his own work not long after Banksy's 2006 Barely Legal Exhibit.

I'll say right away that I don't buy into the whole "prankumentary" claim. I could more easily buy that Banksy wanted a lucid portrayal of the events rather than the schizo, pressured film Guetta was set to release - is it so outside the realm of possibility that the elusive artist has an image to uphold? Maybe. In any case, it's well put together and enormously entertaining - whether it be stinging indictment or simple promotion.