Street art is closely linked to punk ideology with its rebellious anti-authoritarianism actions, and DIY ethic, and with its provocative plot, this excellent documentary is asking so many questions about what art is all about.
In about 80 minutes, we follow Thierry Guetta, a French guy living in LA, who owns a clothing vintage store where hipsters shop (we even see Beck shopping at his store!), but who has also the obsessive compulsive disorder of videotaping everything, everywhere. He began catching celebrities with its camera – there is even a shot of a half pissed off Liam Gallagher on Hollywood boulevard — but when he decides to film his cousin’s art aka Space Invader, he finds his subject. And what a subject! Street art is described in the movie as a hybrid form of graffiti, and the biggest countercultural movement since punk.
After following his Space Invader cousin, one of the first street artists, who manages to glue his little mosaics made of discarded Rubik’s cubes, everywhere in the world, Thierry meets all these artists starting this new movement, like Monsieur André, who draws cartoon-like graffiti with blinking eye and long legs, Zeus, who paints shadows on the street, Seizer, Neckface, Sweet Toof and Cyclops, Dotmasters, Swoon, Borf, Buffmonster, and of course the famous Shepard Fairey, the most prolific street artist with its Andre the Giant/Obey campaign.
Thierry films all these artists doing their paper collages all over LA, NY, London… and he begins traveling the world with Shepard, doing dangerous stunts in order to be able to put more and more stickers, as the more there are out there, the more important they seem, and the more people begin to wonder what they are about.
Thierry accumulates tons of tapes, saying to these artists he is making a documentary about street art, but realizing very fast that he is not a filmmaker, and that he does not know what to do with all this material. But he keeps going, following his passion and obsession.
However, there is one street artist he has never been able to catch, the Holy Grail of the street art, the famous Banksy, whose real identity has never been revealed.
He finally gets to meet him in 2006 in LA through Sheppard Fairey, and Banksy appeared several times in the movie, in the hood, with an altered voice. Banksy even says at the beginning that the movie was supposed to be about him and street art, but it turned out that the guy who wanted to make the documentary was probably a more interesting subject.
Thierry gets lucky like this many times, filming and exposing the man of mystery and his studio, getting in trouble with the police many times, and always getting high on danger and fear.
But the movie does not stop there, there is a completely surprising development: when Banksy asks him about the documentary, and sees the unwatchable production Thierry finally has put together, a documentary which looks more like a long trailer made by a mentally deranged person, Banksy encourages Thierry to do some art instead.
And this is when life imitates art, Thierry becomes Mister Brainwash or MBW, a total copycat of all the artists he has filmed during 5 years, with a too obvious Andy Warhol’s touch, and also a megalomaniac tendency: he invests all his money in an extravagant LA exhibit without even been known.
The best part of all this, and the most absurd is that he becomes an extremely successful artist overnight, selling for millions, his last customer being Madonna for whom he has made the cover for ‘Madonna’s greatest hits collection’. ‘Suckers’, as Shepard put it at one point!
The movie is very funny and intelligent as it asks the right questions about what art is and what an artist really is. As Banksy noticed at the end of the movie, Thierry did not play by the rules, but art is not supposed to have any rules, so?
We are left wondering who Thierry is: An opportunist? A joke? A hoax? He ends up being a likeable character, who got very lucky.
But, there is another twist to the story: Some people are saying that the whole movie is a hoax, that Thierry as the street artist is a made-up character, and that MBW is in fact a manufactured persona by Fairey and Banksy to criticize the over-commercialization of street art. Both have denied of course.
Wow! After watching the movie, I am still wondering, but I would not be surprised, it’s a Banksy film and may be the title gives it away? At the end, it does not matter, it’s simply brilliant.
Watch the trailer here, and I guarantee you will want to see the whole thing: