EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP is a documentary, even if it isn't

I was afraid of EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP. Very, very afraid. It seemed like the concept was rife for a bunch of pretentious defensive justifications for street art, or angry my-dad-didn't-love-me-so-I-draw-on-walls interviews. And while there is some of that at work here, the film really becomes a character documentary, examining the original filmmaker who shot all the footage.

It's an interesting idea, and it helps that the man who shot the documentary is an absolute eccentric, a man who is as mysterious as he is fascinating. His entire backstory is strange, full of weird details (like his desire to document literally everything after losing his mother), to his source of income. You end up spending large sections of the film wondering how much of what you're seeing is "real", and just how much of this is an elaborate prank put on by the artists.

Regardless of how much of the film is real or not, it's pretty clear what the focus of the film is: the commercialization of art. And whether Thierry Guetta is truly as we see him in the film, the point remains the same. Much like Banksy's art, the message is almost instantaneous - in this case, the title says it all.

Oh, and it's funny. Really, really funny.