Exit Through the Gift Shop 2010

Amy Nicholson, I.E. Weekly: What's the difference between a 14-year-old tagger and a hype monster spray-painting Campbell's soup cans? Nothing. But the gulf between them and Banksy is as wide as the Pacific Read more

A.O. Scott, At the Movies: Fascinating. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: The brilliantly untrustworthy documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop reminds us that a film can start out in one direction and then change course so radically, it becomes an act of provocation unto itself. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: That rarest of art documentaries, one that actually leaves viewers with a better sense of the gifted versus the phony. In several senses, Banksy has created a monster. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Narrated by Rhys Ifans with the dryness of a dessicated toad, Exit Through the Gift Shop is both an exhilarating testament to serendipity and an appalling testament to art-world inanity. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Droll, aerosol-thin and ultrameta, a movie about a movie that supposedly was but actually wasn't being made about Banksy by his amiably bonkers Boswell, a compulsive French videographer named Thierry Guetta. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: The widespread speculation that Exit Through the Gift Shop is a hoax only adds to its fascination. Read more

Noel Murray, AV Club: Just as a permanent record of a remarkable artistic movement, Exit Through The Gift Shop is valuable. But there's more going on here. Read more

Richard Nilsen, Arizona Republic: The plain fact is that, on some level, it doesn't matter whether the film is true or not. Either way, it's fascinating. Either way, we learn a lot. Either way, it's a great film. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: One of the best, most karmically satisfying comedies of the year, much to the chagrin of the people who are in it. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Some have suggested that the whole story, including the emergence of Mr. Brainwash, is an elaborate hoax engineered by Banksy to satirize the commodification of art. If so, it's a brilliant one. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Put-on, satire, mockumentary, goof? Whatever it is, "Exit Through the Gift Shop" is an original. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: Like Banksy's best street work, it pushes and prods our gullibility buttons and sends the mind swirling with questions of artistic authenticity and intent. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Hoax or not, Exit Through the Gift Shop ends up energizing, aggravating, enjoyable and revealing. Is it art or isn't it? Who knows? Apparently no one. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: An exhilarating hall-of-mirrors look at what happens when global art fame turns anonymous, artists become objects, fans turn into artists, and the whole what's-sincere-and-what's-a-sham spectacle is more fun than art was ever supposed to be. Read more

David Germain, Associated Press: The film is a curiosity. It's both an attempted documentary of an artistic movement and a bemused examination about why the movie failed in that mission. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: For the more you think about this unusual film, the more fascinating it becomes culturally and sociologically, dealing with notions of mania and obsession, art and commerce, hype and quality. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: A provocative and absorbing exploration of what constitutes art, the creative process and the power of hype to triumph over talent. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: Exit Through the Gift Shop feels dangerously close to the promotion of a cult -- almost, dare one say it, of a brand. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: Banksy makes an appealing narrator with a deft grasp of the questions raised. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: This initiates a role reversal in which documentarian becomes artist and vice versa. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: A documentary on the art world may strike you as a yawn. No worries. You'll be laughing helplessly at this one. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: It's a rueful, comic exploration of what happens when artists like Banksy and his friend Shepard Fairey see their own weapons used against them. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Exit Through the Gift Shop, credited as "A Banksy Film," poses some bitingly funny questions about the meaning and value of art. Is it in the eye of the beholder? Is it truth plus beauty? Anything you can get away with? Brainwashing? Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: As the documentary morphs into a riddle about art in the marketplace, the eyes of the beholder get crossed, and the dizziness is part of the fun. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: We don't learn that much about Banksy, other than he's a lot more meticulous than his street warrior image would suggest. Read more

Ben Kenigsberg, Time Out: Read more

Dave Calhoun, Time Out: The film is a rousing tribute to street art, a crafty autobiography and a cheeky comment on the bravado of artists, talented or otherwise, and the gullibility of their punters - us included. Read more

Peter Debruge, Variety: A raucously entertaining postmodern survey of guerrilla street art that appears to be one thing, only to fold back on itself and examine would-be filmmaker Thierry Guetta instead. Read more

Aaron Hillis, Village Voice: A genuinely hip, thought-provoking work of art disguised as a doomed documentary resurrected. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: Exit Through the Gift Shop offers an absorbing glimpse of a bracingly subversive slice of the culture, as well as some tantalizing images of Banksy at work. Read more