I think I was run through the whole emotional spectrum during that Banksy movie, and now, I’m actually feeling somewhat disillusioned.
Mild “spoilers” warning.
Exit Through the Gift Shop offered a fascinating look into the counterculture, turned almost commoditised world of street art, and more so, the rise of Thierry Guetta, from lovably creepy videotaping voyeur to derivative “street artist”, making a mockery of the craft in the process!
Or am I overreacting, and was the whole “documentary” simply a mockumentary? Considering the layers of irony that riddled the movie, I find it hard to rule it out, but, looking beyond all that, I loved every minute of it, and will be paying a lot more attention to what I once thought were the random scribblings that littered the walls, and the derogatory connotations that came with the word “graffiti”.
A fantastic way to welcome in the Sydney Film Festival for 2010! As a self-proclaimed, quasi-movie buff, I am somewhat embarrassed to say, that was my first time at the Sydney Film Festival, but rest assured, I’ve already got tickets to 5 other movies, and don’t expect to lose my Event Cinemas George Street mayorship anytime soon.
And on that note, it’s sad that the Banksy Badge wasn’t on offer >.<
c0up 
I wanted to wait until I saw this before I wrote a comment/read the post because I really couldn’t wait until this was released and it’s probably the first movie in a while I haven’t looked up the spoiler to. I feel it was more of a combination of the two (doco/moco) rather than being either one or the other – definitely Thierry’s "movie" must have been a joke because it was that bad, but I think the overall concept and creation of Mr Brainwash was true to some extent.It was a shame not to be able to get the Banksy badge, but I discovered they were only distributing it during the launch weeks of the movie (i.e. only in the US), but I have my ticket stub which I guess is a bit more real than a 4sq badge 😉
Yeh, fair point, it was definitely started out with a documentary vibe, but slowly got more and more far fetched, and heh, Banksy describing what Thierry’s "movie" was like—someone with ADHD switching through 900 channels—interlaced with actual clips from the "movie" was absolutely HILARIOUS!I initially thought when you tweeted a link to the Banksy badge for SFF and ACMI, it was that it WAS available, and only saw later it was a Get Satisfaction thing >.< But, lies, Foursquare badges are worth way more than real items like ticket stubs!
i never said it was there 😛 – to reference my tweet:"Attn 4sq nerds going2 "Exit Through the Gift Shop" at @sydfilmfest + @acmionline pls help 2get Banksy badge avail there http://bit.ly/9ZUtPE" (http://twitter.com/jessnichols/status/15082300018)i think its very poor on 4sq part not to release the badge to all movie theatres screening it – although I know they are NY based, it would help 4sq get their name out there in other areas (both in US and overseas) – in my movie session last night there were at least five people who checked in, and i’m guessing if the badge was up for grabs, the number of people checking in would have doubled; which would have really helped 4sq – because the uptake in Australia (and Melbourne especially) isn’t that high relative to other countries at the moment.
I think all I read when I scanned it initially was "Attn 4sq nerds going2 "Exit Through the Gift Shop" at @sydfilmfest + @acmionline.. Banksy badge avail there" >.<Yeh, pretty disappointing on their part. Did you see that yesterday, Vodafone were sending people sms’ telling them to join Foursquare!