Once, nominated for Best Documentary in the 2011 Academy Awards. This documentary is one of the strangest documentaries, I watch, in a long time. It's surprising that this film got even made. The film's editors had to sit through over 10,000 hours of tapes just to get a few minutes' worth of usable footage. While, the movie says, it was filmed by mysterious graffiti artist, Banksy; most of the filming seem to come from an eccentric French shop keeper and amateur film maker, named Thierry Guetta who transform himself, from an Average Joe into a semi well-known street artist named Mr. Brainwash, in which, this movie covers. However, there has been much speculation, in Thierry's quick artistic metamorphosis evolution that a lot of people, doubt the particularly with regards to authorship and authenticity within the art of this film. Many people believe, that this film was just an elaborate ruse on Banksy's part to cover up that Thierry Guetta is not the artist of his own work, but it was the director that did it, all. It could be, true. After all, Mr. Brainwash's works seem to carbon copy emulate the styles and concepts of Banksy. Plus, there has been some strong speculated that Mr. Brainwash is just another pseudonym outlet for Banksy who remain, very much hidden from the public eye. It has been stated that the reason for this secrecy is that graffiti is a still a crime. Also, since, America has a bigger art market than United Kingdom, but has harsher laws; he would make sense, that Banksy would use, an elaborate public surrogate, just in case, if things go bad, over there. Some suggest, that famous artists, Shepard Fairey and Banksy have been artificially inflating the sales of Mr. Brainwash's work for their own gain. According to some critics, Mr. Brainwash's work hasn't sold as well on independent forums, and I do somewhat believe them. Who knows, if any of this, things are true or not. In the end, it doesn't really matter, to me, because, in my opinion, 'Exit through the Gift Shop' is still entertaining enough, not to care. However, I do believe that the film, portrays Thierry Guetta such a negative light, that it's kinda damaging to the point that many people couldn't take him seriously. He's portray as a mental unbalance comical tool here, rather than a creative artist. I know, Guetta's unhealthy obsession of filming everything is a bit disturbing, but his 2006's short film, Life Remote Control isn't that horrible. Don't get me wrong, it's bad, but it at least, isn't as bad, as the street artists, make it out to be. In my opinion, Guetta still, has some semi-good creatively ideas, when it came to art. Guetta's uniformly subversive pop-art style isn't that amateurism as it looks. So, it was a bit mean-spirited for other street artists to think, they're so much superior to him, and lampoon him, like that. That's one thing, I hate about this film. Everybody in the film acts so pretentious and snobby, when it comes to art. It's such a turn off. However, for the most part, the movie paint the graffiti artists in a good light. Still, I wish, the movie tackle, more of the bad side of graffiti artists as well, as a couther argument. Not all graffiti artist paint their art on abandoned buildings or obvious bland-looking public structure like the movie does for safety reasons. Some, do publicity deface, public property, such as corporate & government building, as a way to promote anarchy and chaos. These acts, can be seem, as disrupted, from the social norms. Others, really go out of their way to vandal, public place used as memorials or worship, as a way to promote hate and discrimination. Other do it, as a way to troll, the public audience, by showcasing hateful or too vulgar or distasteful. Me, personally, I have a love/hate relationship when it comes to those type of graffiti. I do understand, how all graffiti can be represent as art. I can understand, how this type of art, could be misinterpreted and misrepresented by the mainstream media, as gang tagging, or offensive defacement, but there are some truly some artwork isn't that appealing to the eyes, nor wanted. These are it! This can barely be, represented as art. I think, anybody who is a respected graffiti artist can understand, why certain places shouldn't be defacement, by art. After all, I really doubt, that they're willing to have, their own house, graffiti by somebody else. It's way too expensive to clean. I do have to say, I really didn't like that part of the film. Another is the scene where Banksy puts a mannequin dressed like a Guantanamo Bay detainee in the middle of Disneyland. Honestly, what does Disneyland's Big Thunder Mountain Railroad have to with a Guantanamo Bay detainee? I really don't get that message. How is that art? I would, really be mad, if I was, riding that ride, and they close the park, because of that stupid publicity stunt. I would ask, Banksy to repay me for the time, lose. Overall: Graffiti is seen as art to some people and as vandalism to others. It is all based on perspective. As a film, the movie was very interesting. Lots of twist and turns, make this film, a great watch. The future of graffiti looks bright even with all the negative influences it has on it. This film is worth checking out.

Banksy directs a documentary about Thierry Guetta who immigrated from France in 1999. He opened a trendy vintage clothing shop in L.A. He is constantly filming with his video camera. He discovers his cousin is street artist Space Invader which turns into a more in-depth obsession with other street artists. Invader connects him with Shepard Fairey which leads to other artists. He gets intrigued with the secretive Banksy. He films Banksy and then Banksy turns the camera on him.There is a fun energy about this. It feels guerrilla secretive outsider work. Then the question becomes whether this is real or fake or semi-real. It colors the movie for me. In the end, this is another form of street art. It doesn't have to follow any demands of a documentary. I took the whole movie with a grain of salt. It doesn't mean it's bad. I just wish this is a more definitive solid movie about Banksy.

This documentary is hard to explain in a sentence because even to do so doesn't really do justice to what it is actually about. As everyone knows, the one liner is that a man sets out to make a film about street- artist Banksy but finds himself being the subject of the film instead, which, as I say, really tells you something and nothing all at once. The real content of the film is in its commentary because while the film depicts a man "with a serious mental illness who happens to have a camera" obsessively becoming an artist overnight by aping others and riding hype to success, it is really putting this in front of us as something to think about.Mr Brainwash's art does indeed look like "proper" street art, so why is it not? Why did I automatically writer proper in inverted commas? What is the value of all this soulless mass-produced work and is that value set by the huge amount of money that people are willing to pay. It is all very interesting stuff and it works even better because these questions come onto you as you sit and watch a film that is already engaging before you start getting to this side of it. The story behind the commentary side is engaging as we follow street-artists doing their work, get deeper into the community and also have commentary from Banksy and others along the way. I cannot tell you if it is real or fake – indeed whether MBH is an ongoing cultural joke by Banksy or not is hard to say, but if it is staged it s very well done and has been planed and delivered over years. To me it both works too well to be faked but at the same time is too perfect a commentary to have just happened by chance, so I really have no idea.It works though, and this is the main thing. "Real" or acted, the structure is good and produces an engaging and intriguing plot, while the bigger picture is thought-provoking and enjoyably wry. I wasn't sure what to expect when I sat to watch the film and, to be honest, am still not sure what I saw, but it works and works well.

Banksy and friends must have mined for ages to extract the glistening artifacts that form the backbone of this documentary. Tracing the roots of street art through the constant eye of amateur filmographer Thierry Guetta, it's a legit, vivid encapsulation of the thoughts that formed a global movement's shared ideals. Guetta, whose branching connections to the scene are nothing short of amazing, captured years' worth of footage, then filed it away with no sense of categorization or even basic labeling. The resultant greatest hits reel makes for some rich viewing material, but I certainly don't envy the amount of whittling it took to get there. At some point those tapes must have run dry, though, because the focus suddenly shifts from the notorious exploits of Space Invader, Shepard Fairey and Banksy to Guetta's own farcical artistic aspirations. Whether intentional or not, (and I'm fairly certain it was) that jolting misdirection changes the tone from a fresh, adventurous documentary to a thick, bitter dissertation on art-for-profit and the redundant question of what defines the terms 'artist' and 'artwork'. It's an abrupt, unnecessary final word that seems tacked on to give the story some sort of sought-after greater message, which is a shame because the film was trucking along nicely enough without it.