Exit through the Gift Shop is, in other words, a documentary about the making of a documentary that was never made. When Thierry Guetta, an eccentric Frenchman with a compulsion to videotape, becomes passionate about the world of street art, he attempts to track down and document the activities of the world's most famous street artists, including the infamous Banksy. He achieves this, but when the documentary he told Banksy he was making turns out to be an abysmal failure, Banksy takes possession of his footage and builds this documentary about Thierry, who will later become a self-proclaimed artist himself named Mr. Brainwash. to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Although the sequences in the documentary are selected, not staged, the selection of certain fragments of footage over others, and their arrangement together, still expresses meaning to the film. It seems to me that one of the goals of this film was to criticize the way people see and appreciate art. This is done largely by playing “Mr. Brainwash” as an example of an inauthentic and opportunistic “artist,” as opposed to what Banksy sees as true artists, such as Space Invader, Dorf, Shepard Fairey, himself, and the others featured in this film. There are several times when somewhat silly and happy French music is played while Thierry prepares for projects. This musical choice makes Thierry himself look like a fool and makes fun of him and his activities, as if he were a cartoon character or an excited child. One example of this is right after Banksy tells him to go do some of his street art, and another is when the narrator explains Thierry's choice of location for his art exhibition. Additionally, such music is played during much of the show's planning sequence. All this contributes to describing Thierry as clumsy, quixotic and inexperienced. Furthermore, both the interview segments with Banksy and the narration often seem very sarcastic. Many reviewers have said that this movie is entertaining, and that's largely why. The sarcasm is rather dry and is to Thierry's detriment, whether he realizes it or not. My favorite example of this sarcasm was when the narrator said "So now Thierry had to figure out a way to turn 200 identical screenprints into unique and collectible MBW originals", then Thierry was shown briefly scratching his beard, then simply he sprayed paint wildly. on them as they lay on the floor. There is certainly no need to explain how this action hardly fits the bursting words with which the narrator preceded it. Even just the narrator's tone, throughout the film, conveys a sense of dry sarcasm and irony. This type of presentation reminds me of another media (and my favorite TV show) Top Gear, where the same dry, British humor is used to highlight and exploit the comedic difference between expectation and reality. In this documentary, viewers are given a clear, internal picture of Thierry as an inexperienced, inauthentic, essentially talentless artist. However, for the attendees of his art show in Los Angeles, it is the newest and hottest act of art. Despite having never heard of him before, a magazine and a simple recognition from Banksy and Fairey make them immediately ready to accept him as a brilliant and powerful innovator in his field. One participant interviewed felt "Mr. Brainwash's art is a “triumph” that will “go down in history,” as if it were the spectacular voice of a..