Exit Through the Gift Shop

One of the best, most karmically satisfying comedies of the year, much to the chagrin of the people who are in it. more

That rarest of art documentaries, one that actually leaves viewers with a better sense of the gifted versus the phony. more

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. more

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. more

A documentary that doubles as a comic thriller, and it's as entertaining as it is thought-provoking. more

Whatever it is, Exit Through the Gift Shop is an original. more

Hugely entertaining documentary challenges conventional concepts of legitimate art and the creative process. more

A sparkling documentary in which we can't trust that anything in it is true. And yet you would never call it a hoax. more

Exit could be a new subgenre: the prankumentary. Audiences, however, would be advised simply to enjoy the film on its face -- even if that face is a carefully contrived mask. more

Some have suggested that the whole story, including the emergence of Mr. Brainwash, is an elaborate hoax engineered by Banksy to satirize the commodification of art. If so, it's a brilliant one. more

The "overnight success" is rarely a success so quickly. Not only is it possible that Thierry Guetta is a genius, it's also very apparent that he has been driven for years to document the art and artists that he comes to create and be. In that time he is absorbing the technique and the work ethic. I'd call him a master learner at the least. "Overnight success" happens all the time, and it will happen many times again. Genius or not, artists in every medium will rise at the right time and be celebrated by the culture in which they rise. And they will make a ton of money if they are popular.... more

I can't stand Exit Through the Gift Shop. Everything about it seemed contrived, lazy, self-indulgent, turgid, pretentious. Whether it's a hoax or not I don't even care, I wanted to throw things at every single person in the film, particularly Banksy. more

A highly entertaining look at the world of street art, obsession, and overnight celebrity; as directed by Banksy. This is one of the most wholly original documenteries I've ever seen, aswell as one of the most fun. I believe it isn't a hoax but at the same time I just don't really care. It's a great film no matter it's legitimacy (though once again I do believe it to be real). more

The idea that Thierry Guetta thinks that because he watched and filmed real street artist in someway transferred him into an artist is ridiculous. The people that have "fueled" the idea he was an artist instead of shameless self promoter show the shallowness of their ability to spot art and are at best band-wagon art critics!! lol This movie is artificial acclaim and undeserved hype! more

I'm sorry but what is so 'typical' of Banksy playing tricks? He's not really a trickster is he, he is playful and inventive in his art work and keeps his identity a secret because what he does is illegal and he doesn't want to be arrested. Sneaking his work into galleries was a logical progression of street art but he's not exactly the next Jeremy Beadle, or Chris Morris for that matter! (Get googling my none British friends). Sure he has made a statement here, like he does with all his work, but I don't think any of it is particularly unbelievable. Thierry Guetta is one of many... more

Intriguing, implosive, and inventive - but not in a good way; 'Exit Through the Gift Shop' is a strange film. It is deceptive and unbalanced - everything that a post-modern work of art claims to be. It is a piece that tends to alter its intentions and themes as it progresses, all the while questioning its own authenticity. But these qualities give it a difference, a certain style and anarchistic charm, that by the end of the film allow the sum of its parts to equal something true. Perhaps the most interesting part of 'Exit Through the Gift Shop' is that for its first two-thirds - it really... more