JustWatch

Exit Through the Gift Shop

2010 Directed by Banksy

The world's first Street Art disaster movie

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.

Banksy Shepard Fairey Thierry Guetta Rhys Ifans INVADER Debora Guetta Monsieur André Zeus Ron English Swoon Borf Buffmonster Steve Lazarides Wendy Asher Laurent Nahoum-Vatinet Roger Gastman

Alternative Titles

Faites le mur !, Banksy - Exit Through the Gift Shop, Banksy - Pinta a Parede!, Opos exerhesthe apo to politirio, Wyjscie przez sklep z pamiatkami, 선물 가게를 지나야 출구, 从礼品店出门, 走出礼品店, 怪盗涂鸦异世界

Genre

documentary

Themes

Humanity and the world around us Crude humor and satire documentary, fascinating, sad, emotional or heartbreaking artists, biography, musician, songs or emotional political, democracy, documentary, president or propaganda band, songs, concert, musician or lyrics journey, scientific, documentary, humanity or earth Show All…

87 mins More at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by James (Schaffrillas) ★★★★ 2

Watched this in film class and my God this is BONKERS. Easily the most insane documentary I've ever seen. Is it real? Was it staged? Who cares?
Thierry Guetta cements himself as the Tommy Wiseau of the art world, and his story is as hilarious as it is thought-provoking. I'm gonna be pondering the nature of art criticism and subjectivity for weeks to come after seeing this. Great stuff.
Review by #1 gizmo fan ★★★★ 5

if you don't consider street art to be real art block me
Review by Matt Singer ★★★★½

Highly entertaining and drolly funny upon its initial release, this documentary now feels even more prescient in its depiction of a world that was only coming into being at the time, in which everyone became the star of their own social media show. As a street artist, Thierry Guetta might be a genial hack; as a member of the make-yourself-a-celebrity-through-endless-self-documentation-and-obsession, he was absolutely on the cutting edge.
The question of whether Mr Brainwash was real or an elaborate hoax engineered by Banksy followed Exit Through the Gift Shop everywhere. And now it feels completely irrelevant. Whether Guetta is “real” or not, someone was buying his art. And unlike those counterfeit bills Banksy keeps in the storage space above his studio, that money is very real. (Also, Rhys Ifans should narrate more documentaries. What a fabulous voice.)
Review by Jonathan White ★★★★ 6

The real question is if Mr. Brainwash is an artist, or is he art?
Review by Charlie ★★★★½

It's confounding. It's thought-provoking. It's unexpected. All the things a good documentary should be.
Makes you think about what art is; where do you draw the line between creativity and delusion? What makes art?
The documentary in itself is nothing like what I've watched before. It takes your preconceived notions and flips it on your head. Extraordinary.
I'm still blown away, speechless really.
"I think the joke is on... I don’t know who the joke is on, really. I don’t even know if there is a joke."
Review by DIREKTIONZ ★★★★ 5

When the documentary came out there were a lot of discussions and arguments about whether or not this story is actually a hoax. Banksy definitely would’ve been able to tell/fake this plot, the events and characters all over the years, but what I love about the discussions is how it reinforces my thoughts how Exit Through The Gift Shop is all-around meta. A filmmaker films a documentary about street art, but then a documentary is made out of the filmmaker by the artist Bansky himself.
The story is fascinating beyond belief. About the history of street art, about filmmaking, about taking risks and about being lucky.
Exit Through The Gift Shop surprised the hell out of me. It’s not even…
Review by LinusMxx ★★★★

"I don't know how to play chess, but to me, life is like a game of chess."
What started off as a relatively straightforward documentary by an obsessive filming hobbyist Thierry Guetta's dive into the world of street art culture and his interaction with the mysterious graffiti artist named Banksy, gradually turns into a meta exploration and analysis on the definition and nature of art and artistry when Banksy ended up documenting his documentarian himself after he suddenly becomes a famous (hack) artist after getting influenced by the street art culture he's been following for years. The switching of the film's P.O.V. ended up affecting the nature of the film on a meta-textual level. I loved it. What a fun,…
Review by Spencer ★★★★

the dumbest guy of all time accidentally owns the entire art world, you love to see it
Review by chavel ★★★½

Exit Through the Gift Shop is a prankish and whacked documentary. I am not one that has ever appreciated graffiti artists since I have often seen it as vandalism, but for the first time I understand them. Exit is a chronicle and how-to on graffiti art transforming into commercial post-modern art; to launch a huge exclusive showing in order to sell large sums of it is something of a shrewd grift? Thierry Guetta (very Frenchy! very eccentric! very passionate DIY-extraordinaire!) is an amateur filmmaker who has filmed hundreds of thousands of hours of his own life over the last twenty-odd years, many of them alongside with graffiti artists as a side interest. The mysterious Banksy, the czar of the renegade…
Review by Nikolai Efimov ★★★★½ 3

The real question isn't whether or not this film is a hoax, which it clearly is, it's exactly where the facts stop and the fiction begins. In any case, the film is a weirdly perfect attack on the art community, and probably the most authentic documentary about the spirit of street art anyone could make. One thing everyone who sees this film should be certain of is that Banksy is the real deal, a certifiable artistic genius living among us, with a twisted sense of humor and a Machiavellian demeanor. Incredibly entertaining and watchable, wickedly funny, the film tells as ripping a yarn as any documentary I could name. Rather than a 'street art disaster movie,' I'd call this a 'dignity heist flick,' with almost everyone on screen cast as a victim.
Review by Graham Williamson ★★★★★ 1

I once met someone who knew Banksy. That's not me boasting about being on the inside track of something. Banksy's anonymity is a legal fiction, designed to avoid too much police hassle around the grey area his art exists in. There are certain districts of Bristol where it's hard to meet anyone who doesn't know who Banksy is, and the city cheerfully collaborates in keeping the identity of its most famous living artist an open secret. It is Robert del Naja from Massive Attack. No, I'm joking. Or am I?
Anyway, the person I met knew Banksy fairly well, and had the wall decoration in his house to prove it. When I met him, I'd just been to the cinema…
Review by {Todd} ★★★★½

8 years ago I believed that this documentary was fantastic and today I believe it is even fantasticER. I am no closer to knowing how much, if any of this, is fake and also no closer to knowing whether if it is fake that makes the film more brilliant or equally brilliant. It has the vibe of one of those 48 hours mysteries or dateline specials except instead of true crime, it is about weird artists.
So, this interesting fellow is filming a documentary about street artists and starts to befriend and record famous street artist Banksy, and yada, yada, yada the documentary becomes about the guy who was initially making the documentary. I think other than that it is best to know as little as possible. Despite the weird premise I still believe I would recommend this film to almost anyone. If you don't know who Banksy is, it doesn't matter, the film will explain him to you.