Exit Through the Gift Shop (Friday, April 23, 2010) (31)

Exit through the Gift Shop is the directorial debut of Banksy, the mysterious English street artist-cum-celebrity whose identity is shrouded in mystery. The film falls somewhere between a documentary, a mockumentary and a narrative film, mixing interviews that may or may not be scripted with documentary footage that was supposedly shot in the past to tell the history of the street art scene.

Street art, as we are told, is more than just graffiti, but is a much more elevated form that uses posters, stickers, spray paint and other media to do any number of creative things to the sides of private and pubic property. It is always outside and because the artists don't get permission from the landlords, it is almost always illegal.

The window through which we see the story is the camera of Thierry Guetta, a French ex-pat living in Los Angeles who owns a vintage clothing store. One time, on a visit to Paris to see his family, he spends time with his cousin who is a street artist called Space Invader.

Space Invader was putting his pieces up through Paris - these were a series of aliens from the 1980s arcade game. Guetta got hooked on the excitement of following his cousin around and documenting the works. He then met several other artists doing similar work throughout the world, from London to New York to L.A. At some point, he met Shepard Fairey, now known for his Obama "Hope" poster (done in a decidedly street art style), but back then doing his signature Obey posters showing wrestler Andre the Giant's face.

As exciting as it was to work with Fairey and others, Guetta's hero and holy grail was Banksy - largely because he couldn't get to the guy, even after taping most of the great street artists on the planet. Well, Guetta's luck changed suddenly, when Banksy arrived in Los Angeles one day and needed a fixer on the ground. The two became friends Banksy let Guetta tape him, as long as his identity remained protected.

From here we see how Guetta began making street art himself and then using a massive promotion machine to create a gallery show in Los Angeles after only a few months of work. He lost all connection to reality or decency and became widely hated by the street art sub-culture for being a fraud.

In many ways this is a brilliant structure that Banksy sets up for telling his story and the story of this movement - and very "street" at the same time. Rather than just showing footage of artists working and having talking heads speak about what they all do, Banksy has Guetta show it all to us. On top of this, Bansky is Guetta's personal Jesus Christ (almost literally) so he gets tons of praise from the man. Then - in the ultimate screw you to the traditional form - Bansky shows Guetta as a mad man freak who has lost all his credibility in the world they are in. Bansky's biggest fan and our sole source for the material we see turns out to be crazy and hard to believe.

To make matters even more challenging, it seems the whole time that Guetta might not actually be a real guy at all - but maybe just an elaborate creation (of Bansky?) to give us this background. It is certain that a man did walk around Los Angeles in the 1990s and 2000s with the name Thierry Guetta, but it is not clear that is a real identity. There is a bit of a wink in the eyes of all the interviewees about Guetta and the tone of the narration (by Rhys Ifans - who seems to be everywhere now, doesn't he) is entirely sarcastic. (Apparently there is a lot of speculation on the Internet that Guetta is a hoax created by Banksy - simply an elaborate street art creation to screw with the art world and show that people will buy anything if it's sold right).

Regardless of the facts on the ground, this is a totally fun and interesting movie. I like the idea that the whole thing is a big performance art piece - set up as a documentary. There is a lot of true stuff in there - about Fairey and Banksy and the history of the movement - but there must also be a lot of shit in it. The fun is to figure out which is which.

Stars: 3 of 4