EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP- Review

Sometimes, there's a Friday in which you look at the new releases and say "I don't need that pain in my life." While I hear generally positive reviews about that Justin Bieber thing, Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son stands at a proud 8% Fresh ranking on Rotten Tomatoes. I'm not seeing either of those movies, so let's do some awards season stuff.

Exit Through The Gift Shop is a film by guerilla artist Banksy, and it's been nominated for Best Documentary. Having seen it, I think that might be tantamount to nominating Cloverfield in that category, but whether it's all for real or not, it tells a true story. The story is Thierry Guetta's- he's a bloke who records his everyday life as a hobby and decides to make some footage based on the emergent street art movement. He gets exclusive contact with Banksy, the biggest name in street art, and Thierry's life begins to change.

We don't often review documentaries in these parts. It seems that whenever I do review a documentary, there's always some doubt about whether or not it's actually part of the recent resurgence in mockumentary films. I'm Still Here was an out-and-out hoax, and Catfish was a film with no less mediation than any other verite documentary, but one which I wanted to be a fictional construct so I wouldn't hate the filmmakers so much. And then there's Exit Through The Gift Shop.

If we can take the hooded Banksy at face value, which we can't because he's Nazgul-faced throughout this film, then it's enough to simply applaud this film as an extraordinary accomplishment of editing. Face or no face, the claim is that Banksy created this film from over 10,000 hours of documentary footage shot by Thierry. The handover of the footage from Thierry to Banksy is a plot point in the film, but the film itself is about Thierry. We're through the looking glass here.

Turns like these are probably the main reason I and others have for doubting its veracity. As mentioned before on this blog, and of course, long before this blog or even I came into existence, documentaries are not reality. They're a depiction of reality, and what's troublesome in this case is that documentaries very rarely come together as art. What's so engaging about this film is that even with 10,000 hours of actuality at its disposal, it doesn't play it straight-faced.

Therein lies the only real subversion. The blurb on my DVD of the film claims that it's "shocking" and "provocative", which builds expectations to a point of inevitable letdown. In truth, the film never shocked me, nor did it provoke me, but then maybe that was what the street artists' excursion to Disneyland was meant to be. I did find it amusing all the same, but I don't see what's so avant-garde or subversive about the thing as a whole.

On a topical note, I finally decided to watch the film after hearing last week's news about Banksy's visit to Los Angeles before Sunday's Oscars ceremony. Apparently, the Academy have declined Banksy's request to appear in disguise at the ceremony, probably in case he does anything subversive during the very high-profile television coverage. Personally, I hope the Academy reconsiders, if not to celebrate the good work he did with this film, then to keep me up as I pull an all-nighter watching their bloody awards this weekend. What else am I supposed to do to stay awake? Hope for something like last year's majestically stupid Hurt Locker-based interpretive dance?

Exit Through The Gift Shop seems to shed its documentary trappings as it goes on, and that's why I wonder how much of it is put on. That said, I concede that I found it very interesting indeed without knowing anything at all about the street art scene. Banksy's reasons for making this film, as stated within its own framework, is to capture the creativity and vitality of the street art movement, which he believes has a short lifespan. In that much at least, the film is a triumph, and it's all the better for me not being able to get my head around it.

Exit Through The Gift Shop is now available on DVD and blu-ray.
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If you've seen Exit Through The Gift Shop, why not share your comments below?

I'm Mark the mad prophet, and until next time, don't watch anything I wouldn't watch.

CATFISH- Review

Yes, now more than ever, this review will be SPOILER FREE, so have no fear. Then again, it begs the question of why you'd be looking at a review of Catfish if you don't want to know anything about it.

If "the best Hitchcock film Hitchcock never directed" sounds like a ridiculous label to attach to Catfish, then you'd be right. Not because it's a bad film, but because it doesn't resemble a Hitchcock film in the slightest. It's essentially the second Facebook film of 2010, after The Social Network. Some think it's an actual documentary, some think it's fake, and people on both sides like or dislike it- some dislike and distrust it so much that they're suing the filmmakers for using their music without paying for clearance.

Basically, it's purported that filmmakers Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost started shooting Ariel's brother Nev's online relationship on camera after realising there could well be a story in it. Nev's a photographer who is in contact with a creative family, and he's grown particularly close to Megan, a young woman with whom he strikes up a romance on Facebook. Inconsistencies begin to appear with the whole Facebook family, and so the trio decide to travel across country to peek behind the veil.

You'll likely spend more time figuring out exactly what Catfish is than you will actually watching it. It's a film that is meant to confound expectations, even if it's not doing so in exactly the way it's intended to. For instance, Messrs Schulmans and Joost all insist it's a real story, and yet one of the trailers for the film, in a parody of The Social Network, says it's not based on true events.

Looking at the film itself, it could go either way. In the year that we saw I'm Still Here, this could easily enough have been constructed in the same way. Or by the same token, it can be seen that there's only as much mediation and construction of reality here as in other documentaries. The documentary form is not about directly transferring the real onto the screen in its entirety, but about representing the real.

For me at least, the debate over Catfish eventually boils down quite simply. If it's fake, it's a very well constructed mockumentary that shows the ongoing impact of social networking in our generation and in others. If it's real, then there's a tremendous lack of sensitivity on the filmmakers' part in presenting this film as it is, typified by the really quite obnoxious Nev Schulman in the Q&A sessions he's been doing to publicise the film. I now think it's real, but what the debate boils down to is whether or not you're OK with the filmmakers' lack of tact, and a week after watching it, I'm still not certain that I am.

That's the salient and spoiler-free point about the film, so it remains to reiterate that it is compulsively watchable, even with such an dislikeable protagonist as Nev Schulman. His own weirdness and creepiness seems to be forgotten by both the directors and by the audience once we get to the twist in the tale, upon which the appeal of this film hinges.

It's not a Hitchcock twist, and I'm not sure why Hitchcock's name was thrown into the mix except for the sake of a good quote in the trailer or on the poster. What it does have going for it is that up until the twist happens, it could literally go off in any direction. I was halfway primed for it to suddenly turn into a zombie movie before we actually found out the truth.

Up to a point, Catfish is served well by its equivocality. I might not agree that it's like a Hitchcock film, except for the marketing ploys that discourage you from seeking out spoilers beforehand, a la Psycho- you should absolutely avoid talking about the film until after you've seen it. It transforms into troubling and yet highly sympathetic viewing for the last half an hour or so. If The Social Network was the cause, this film is the effect. Some have cast a judgemental eye upon the Facebook family who Nev got in touch with, and it's reactions like this that make it a difficult film to like. It's down to you to make your own mind up about it- I can only say that despite my quibbles, it's an essential viewing experience.

Catfish is now playing in select cinemas nationwide.
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If you've seen Catfish, why not share your comments below?

I'm Mark the mad prophet, and until next time, don't watch anything I wouldn't watch.