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I'm quickly falling behind in movie reviews again, partly due to laziness and partly due to the World Cup. It would be amazing if one day I were able to post movie reviews just a couple days after seeing the movies. However, I do like the fact that the memories of the movie have time to marinate in my mind before I write about them.

I had never heard of the street artist known as Banksy until a couple of months ago, when coworker emailed me a link to photos of his work and I thought they were some of the most creative things I had seen in a long time. The idea that what is known as vandalism can actually be something artistic has always been an interesting thing to me. There are times when I think illegal artwork should be allowed to stay, because it makes something more beautiful or entertaining. A few years back, my sister and I saw stencils of Ralph Macchio here and there in the greater LA area and found them highly entertaining, especially because they were often in precarious places that must have caused the artist a lot of trouble. For us, the absurdity of the subject and the creative places he appeared made us appreciate the work.

When I saw Banksy's work and found out a movie was coming out about him, I made a point to drive out to Irvine for the movie. Exit Through the Giftshop presents itself as a documentary made by Banksy himself. He was supposed to be the subject of a documentary created by Thierry Guetta, a Frenchman who turned his camera obsession (he literally has boxes and boxes of filmed moments from his own life) onto the arena of street art. When Thierry gets obsessed with anything, he overdoes it to the extreme, and decides to become a street artist himself. So, while the movie starts out introducing us to street art through the eyes of Thierry, Banksy turns the focus onto Thierry completely, especially his over-hyped and overambitious art show. I have no idea how much of Thierry's story is actually real, because as the movie progresses, it becomes increasingly obvious that this isn't a true documentary. It feels more and more like a mockumentary, but there's a level of genuineness and plenty of footage that make one feel that a lot of it is original material. Whatever the case may be, it's always intriguing and entertaining.

The first half of the movie does essentially function as an introduction to street art. Like the Ralph Machcchio stenciler, there are plenty of artists out there that use the same image or idea and replicate it in many creative ways on walls, sidewalks, etc. One guy makes mosaics of Space Invader creatures and attaches them to buildings as if they have always been a part of the structure. Another takes Andre the Giant's face and plasters large posters of it with the word "Obey" underneath it. Another traces shadows of objects like street lights so that they can be seen at all times of the day. Banksy's art often makes much deeper statements. Just Google it if you want to see some examples.

The more I saw as the movie progressed, the more impressed I was. Then, as the build up to learning more about Banksy increased, the movie shifted onto Thierry's obsession with becoming a street artist. He jumps in quickly with a single image of himself holding a camera and starts imitating the people he has been following. Pretty soon, he's staging a huge art show and promoting it with Banksy's endorsement. This whole segment is quite the spectacle. I loved that it addressed so many ideas, about the line between imitation and art, what makes a person an artist, what gives art value, what does the public know about art and how is the public swayed to love or hate it, whether true art can emerge in our current society, how commercialism works with or against art, etc.

The list can go on and on, but what I love about the movie is that all of these ideas are addressed at one point or another through contrasting Thierry and the other street artists. At some level, I wish we could have had more direct access to Banksy himself and hear more about what statements he wants to make or how he got started doing what he does. But his preferred anonymity and mysteriousness is what interests people, isn't it? Would his work be as exciting if we had all the answers? Perhaps not. If people knew who he was, he certainly wouldn't be able to do as much as he does. So, I'm happy with what I saw, which was an entertaining, smart, and funny look at a genre of art that I had never been exposed to until this year (where have I been?). And the first thing I wanted to do when I got home was start painting walls. I wonder if I could talk Ric into it...