"Exit Through the Gift Shop": One of 2010's Best Documentaries

When underground art surfaces afloat the mainstream it taunts a threshold that every artist contemplates. As we experience the larger envelope of street art invading urban landscapes, the spectator still makes no "Exit through the Gift Shop". Thus, the title of a 2010 film from the innovative London street artist Banksy, called "Exit through the Gift Shop."

The living, breathing art that adorns brick walls, bus stops and sidewalks across concrete jungles is a pointed contrast to the lifeless walls of museums. It is no discredit to curators or art historians; it is just the distinction between urban renegades and the graveyard of names that hang in museums. As starving as the artist may be, the art world is in essence aristocratic and street art is in theory impoverished. One could make a life long quest drawing lines of distinction, yet "Exit through the Gift Shop" scratches an ambiguous threshold to suit most of us.

"Exit through the Gift Shop"follows an obsessive Frenchman in Los Angeles, Thierry Guetta, as he documents years of shadowing street artists globally. We know from Banksy's introduction to the movie that it was a film by Guetta about street art that became a film by Banksy about Guetta. Banksy's notorious anonymity was infiltrated by the charismatic Guetta, but this Frenchman has no charisma in the editing room. Years upon years, and hours upon hours of probably poorly lit footage washed up on Banksy's shore. From this charismatic mess of a documentary Banksy set sail with his own documentary; harnessed by the hollow winds of Mr. Brainwash.

In the course of following street artists like Shepard Fairey and Invader, Thierry Guetta became his own street persona, Mr. Brainwash. For years graffiti artists and street artists tagged up the streets of every city wall and on the moving canvas of trains. Then Mr. Brainwash came along, wielding more attitude than skill, more a publicist than prophet, and tagged up the street art scene.

Banksy had caused a tremor in the art world when he exhibited street art in a gallery atmosphere, once in 2002 with Existencilism and then in 2006 with Barely Legal, which is featured in "Exit through the Gift Shop." The more destructive aftershock of Banksy's gala events was Mr. Brainwash's imitation that became a catastrophic success.

In watching "Exit through the Gift Shop", we grow a fond fascination of street art, much like Thierry Guetta on his quest. The resulting climax, and what seems to be Banksy's message, is that Mr. Brainwash came to represent a ridicule of street creed and the emergence of commercial street art success. Yes, "commercial street art success" is a statement loaded with a juxtaposition of irony and a contradictory oxymoron.

Mr. Brainwash is in no way solely responsible for selling out street art, as it's been happening since its genesis as a style and culture. It began when some kid with a knack for spray cans was commissioned to do a mural or customize someone's hat. The slightly ambiguous message about Mr. Brainwash in Banksy's "Exit through the Gift Shop", is a philosophy of cultural feedback loops. As artists from the canon of art history turned in their grave as Banksy snuck into a museum and hung his work on the wall, so did the street artist's stomach turn when Mr. Brainwash opened his art show with a bang. The street artists who thought they were being made legends by Thierry Guetta's camera, stood in disillusionment when he transformed into Mr. Brainwash.

The film is a blast to watch, and Guetta's success makes him no less charismatic. Nor does Banksy's expose-like documentary make him a snotty street artist that's too cool for school. Banksy himself understands reaping commercial success based on a renegade persona. Art, alas, is a feedback loop, where success stimulates artistic angst, which in turn generates success. Paying to see the film is a metaphor itself for an "Exit through the Gift Shop."