jasonhurwitz's Review

Summary - Very Good 3.5

Interesting documentary that twisted unexpectedly! It was very interesting to see the behind-the-scenes of street art in its infancy, but I very quickly tired of the man around which the film centered: Thierry Guetta.

My favorite part of the movie, other than the behind-the-scenes stuff, were some of the quotes:

• “Warhol repeated iconic images until they became meaningless, but there was still something iconic about them. Thierry really makes them meaningless.” ~Banksy

• “I don’t know how to play chess, but to me, life is like a game of chess.” ~Thierry Guetta

• “Uhmmm… You know… it was at that point that I realized that maybe Thierry wasn’t actually a film maker, and he was maybe just someone with mental problems who happened to have a camera.” ~Banksy

• “It was magic that this person let me film, you know? I felt like I had the piece that will finish the puzzle. It was like getting something in the daylight that… what you see in the nightlight. He was even more than I expected; he was, like, just incredible; he was cool, he was… he was human, he was… he was… he was… he is, you know, he’s really like a… what he represents, you know? He’s really like a… I think he’s really like a… I really liked him!” ~Thierry Guetta talking about meeting Banksy for the first time

Another great quote, not from this film, but related to it: “[Thierry’s] art sells for roughly double what mine does these days. Gore Vidal once wrote that ‘Every time a friend of mine succeeds, a little bit of me dies.’ I’d amend that to ‘Every time one of my friends borrows my ideas, mounts a huge art show and becomes a millionaire celebrity,’ a little bit of me wants him dead.” ~Banksy

Acting - Very Good 3.5

Film - Very Good 3.5

Edge - Tame 1.1

Reality - Natural 1.0

It’s real, unless you subscribe to the conspiracy theories that Guetta is actually Banksy, or that Banksy and Shepard Fairey convinced Guetta to pretend to be an artist to do some “street art” in the film world.

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