Severed Thumbs: Exit Through the Gift Shop

by Jon

I'm a huge fan of Banksy. I believe all of his work his meaningful, witty, gorgeous, and tongue in cheek hilarious. Naturally, when I heard he released a movie I had to see it. That movie is Exit Through the Gift Shop



So just a bit of background for those who don't know Banksy. Banksy is a UK based street artist who is infamous for his stencil work, installations, and privacy. Nobody except a very select few have heard his voice and seen his face. Here's one of my favorites of his.



Now that the introductions are over, here's the movie. The movie is a documentary that Banksy made about Thierry Guetta, a not even amateur French film maker turned street artist. As Banksy put it, Thierry was looking for him and trying to make a documentary on him. Banksy took the project and made the doc about Thierry because he is much more interesting. It started in the early Aughts when Thierry's cousin "Space Invader", a street artist, took him on a couple outings when Thierry was visiting family in France. Thierry, who always had a video camera on him at all times, came on the night runs and fell in love with the movement. Eventually Thierry gets sucked into the street art world and becomes its unofficial documenter. He travels the world taping and aiding famous street artists such as Ron English (known for his work in the movie Super Size Me )and Shepard Fairey (Obey). This goes on for a couple years but Thierry does absolutely nothing with the footage. Enter master artist Banksy, who learns of Thierry on a run in LA. They get to know each other, become friends, then a series of events turns Thierry into a street artist by the name of "Mr. Brainwash" who sells out so bad he makes Gene Simmons look like a starving artist. Take note, this synopsis does absolutely no justice to this film NONE. To anyone familiar with Banksy's work or just those even a bit curious, this is a definite must see. There's a lot of speculation on whether or not this is in fact a true doc or, in typical Banksy style, something much much more. See it, laugh, cry, get pissed, and judge. 6 out of 6