Exit Through the Gift Shop

Colleen's Thoughts:

When I first started to write my review for this documentary, I gave a long personal anecdote of my affinity for Banksy. That got far too long and I hadn't even gotten to the film so, instead, I'll stick to discussing Banksy's new doc, which is quite worthy of its own praise. If you want to know more about Banksy and I, just ask. Here goes the review:

I hesitate only slightly in exclaiming that I've been more impressed with the documentaries I've seen this year than with the narrative films. Having said that, Exit Through the Gift Shop lived up to its hype and will be a strong competitor for the best doc award at the 2010 Colleen's.

Thanks to Thierry Giuetta, our main subject, the film has amazing footage of street art in action and shows the entire thinking, creating, assembling, and displaying proccess. It also has awesome and rare footage of Banksy at work.

However, the film isn't merely segments of street art happening, it is a character study of Thierry Giuetta who claimed to be making a documentary of street art and then became the street "artist," MBW (Mr. Brainwash). The end product of this doc ends up being an intriguing look at the art world and what it means to be an artist. It's fascinating to mull over the differences between someone like Banksy and MBW. Truly a thought provoking film, and if you don't know street art and Banksy a great way to dive in head first.