Synopsis
Banksy is a graffiti artist with a global reputation whose work can be seen on walls from post-hurricane New Orleans to the separation barrier on the Palestinian West Bank. Fiercely guarding his anonymity to avoid prosecution, Banksy has so far resisted all attempts to be captured on film. Exit Through the Gift Shop tells the incredible true story of how an eccentric French shop keeper turned documentary maker attempted to locate and befriend Banksy, only to have the artist turn the camera back on its owner.
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Cast
- Rhys IfansNarrator
- Thierry GuettaSelf
- BanksySelf
- Shepard FaireySelf
- INVADERSelf
- Debora GuettaSelf
- Monsieur AndréSelf
- ZeusSelf
- Ron EnglishSelf
- SwoonSelf
Recommendations
- 100
Time Out
That rarest of art documentaries, one that actually leaves viewers with a better sense of the gifted versus the phony. - 100
Entertainment Weekly
An exhilarating hall-of-mirrors look at what happens when global art fame turns anonymous, artists become objects, fans turn into artists, and the whole what's-sincere-and-what's-a-sham spectacle is more fun than art was ever supposed to be. - 100
Los Angeles Times
Subversive, provocative and unexpected, Exit Through the Gift Shop delights in taking you by surprise, starting quietly but ending up in a hall of mirrors as unsettling as anything Lewis Carroll's Alice ever experienced. - 91
The A.V. Club
A documentary that doubles as a comic thriller, and it’s as entertaining as it is thought-provoking. - 90
The Hollywood Reporter
Hugely entertaining documentary challenges conventional concepts of legitimate art and the creative process. - 80
New York Magazine (Vulture)
Narrated by Rhys Ifans with the dryness of a dessicated toad, Exit Through the Gift Shop is both an exhilarating testament to serendipity and an appalling testament to art-world inanity. - 80
Variety
A raucously entertaining postmodern survey of guerrilla street art that appears to be one thing, only to fold back on itself and examine would-be filmmaker Thierry Guetta instead. - 80
Village Voice
Not just the definitive portrait of street-art counterculture, but also a hilarious exposé on the gullibility of the masses who embrace manufactured creative personas.
