Exit Through the Gift Shop

Notorious British art prankster Banksy pulls another fast one with his hysterical first movie, Exit Through the Gift Shop. After meeting French shopkeeper and amateur videographer Thierry Guetta, Banksy agrees to let the aspiring filmmaker record him in action as he puts up his subversive street, which attacks political and corporate greed, widespread surveillance, the police, and the art market itself. But Banksy, whose real identity has been a matter of controversy since the late 1980s, turns the tables on Guetta, using the cameraman's extensive existing footage of such well-known street artists as Space Invader, Shepard Fairey, and Swoon and adding new interviews to create a remarkably cogent and exciting documentary about a different subject: Guetta himself. As with Orson Welles's F for Fake, which examined the art market and forgery, it is nearly impossible to tell how much of Exit is real and how much is a hoax, but either way it is extraordinarily funny as it shows how ludicrous the art world and the culture of celebrity can be. Banksy himself appears throughout the film, but his face is always hidden or blurred; still, the beloved and reviled British National Treasure reveals more of himself than he ever has before in this surprising and brilliant movie.